by Oxford, Rain
“It’s just as close to mine if she has it when she’s with us. Are you sure this isn’t just hormones?” Edward asked.
It was irrational to feel Divina could protect it better than Edward, who was older and a Guardian. “Maybe it’s both, but I feel she’s safe just as much as I feel the book is in danger,” I insisted.
He rubbed his eyes as if with a migraine and looked at Divina, who was regarding me with a somewhat neutral expression. “Divina is powerful, but she doesn’t have the instincts to protect it the way we do.” Edward was clearly fighting between trusting my instincts and his own suspicions that I was entranced by Divina’s charm.
“I don’t want the responsibility,” Divina argued. “I appreciate your trust, Dylan, but I’m afraid it’s misplaced. I think maybe your dream upset you and you need to get your confidence back.”
“We need to increase your training,” Edward added. “Do you know the dragon’s blood and other stuff Divina put in the sun charm?” He paused for me to nod. “That was a base; a physical connection or representation of the spell. They usually involve either something for the senses or the state of mind. Most things don’t need a certain base, only something that you feel represents your purpose. If you were doing a love spell, you would use a color you feel represents love, a scent that would, along with what else you need. They’re all just desperation and passion spells anyway. Do you get it?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. I’ll teach you now to recuperate your body’s energy from your magic energy better than a night’s rest. Divina, you prepare to teach him how to make someone forget.”
“That’s a very complicated spell,” she said.
“So is everything else I plan to teach him before the ship docks. No unlicensed magic on Anoshii, remember? I don’t care how long it takes for them to find us, if they ever do. I care that he’s ready for it.”
So Edward taught me his regeneration spell, which was something between hypnotization and meditation. It took more time than it should have to reach the relaxed, almost dreamlike state. It was like being so close to sleep that you are completely unaware of your surroundings, but you’re not asleep. It was extremely difficult to get to.
Finally, after almost an hour, I was able to get there and not fall asleep. All I had to do was allow energy to flow freely into me and out of me as it willed. Then I fell asleep, but when Edward woke me a few seconds later, I felt full of energy- the regular kind.
Then it was Divina’s turn.
“I want to start by showing you how it feels when it’s done to you. I’ve never taught this before, and I’m not a good teacher. Now, it will feel different when it’s being done to you according to the intentions. I want you to think of a memory you wish you can forget forever; a memory you hate and which causes you unpleasant feelings when you think of it.”
I thought for a few minutes. I had lots of terrible memories, but they all taught me things. I finally settled on the Christmas that Mother ran off with a boyfriend and left me home alone with no food. I was always suspicious on Christmas because of that.
“Okay,” I said.
“Lay back and replay the memory in your head,” she instructed.
I started from when I got off for winter break of second grade. I had braced myself for torture, but she wasn’t home when I got there. One of her boyfriends was, though, so I had to sneak to my room to avoid him. Mother came home and they ate downstairs while I hid in my room. Almost every man at Christmas time was a drinker, which meant he was also abusive. I snuck in the middle of the night to get food while they… slept. Then they were gone the next morning, and so was almost all of the food. I had to go to the neighbors to ask for food, but I couldn’t tell them that Mother had left me; that would have made her very angry.
I realized that my thoughts were getting hard to follow as my body became more and more relaxed. Pleasant feelings washed over me in waves and ripples and I found myself smiling and focusing on the feelings. Then they slowly slipped away, finally leaving me with only a slightly pleasant feeling.
“How do you feel?” Divina asked.
Her voice was so beautiful. “Good.”
“What was it you were remembering?” she asked. I tried to think, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. I could feel that it had been there, and that I was so close, but I had no idea.
“It was about Christmas,” Edward said. “Your mother and her boyfriend ran off. You don’t remember?”
I remembered stuff about Christmas and Mother, but not about Mother running off and Christmas in the same subject. It sounded like it would have been fun, but why would I give up a fun memory? “No. How do you know what I was thinking?”
He looked tired. “I read your mind.”
“Can you show me that?”
“It takes years to be able to trust your skills, and people can think false thoughts when they know you’re listening. There’s other stuff you need to learn now.”
Divina stood up. “Still, no one would expect him to be reading their thoughts. Maybe it would come in handy.” She looked at me. “You can’t do this on me while I’m trying to teach you. You will have to do it on Kiro.” She went up to him and he gave her an angry but submissive look. Divina punched him in his jaw. He growled as the hit connected, but didn’t move to defend himself. Divina sat next to me and her grin was entirely too cheerful. “Now he has a memory that is not only painful, but humiliating. You need to get rid of it.”
“He had to have a bad memory he wanted to lose. Did you need to punch him?”
“He needs a good, strong thought in his head because you are so… shaky. Hopefully he won’t think of anything important accidentally. Don’t worry; you can only erase a memory or thought he’s thinking of with this spell. Relax and clear your mind, but don’t gather your energy.”
I did slowly. “Okay.”
“Now, I want you to feel the energy around you. When you can feel it very well, focus on the temperature around you. You should notice that it is not even,” she said. After focusing on the energy, it became easier to feel. I could feel it all around me, always moving. It passed through me slowly.
When I could feel it well, I focused on the temperature around me. It was warm. After a few minutes, my mind drifted back to the energy. Then I realized that the temperature around me was warmer near Divina. The more I focused on that variation the more I found how uneven the temperature in the room was.
“You’re warm,” I said with my eyes still closed. I sensed her back away, but the warmth was just as strong. “I still feel it.”
“Good. What do you feel from Kiro?” she asked.
I could feel him just as strongly as Divina. “Warmth, too, but different. It feels like a harsher heat.”
“Angry? Irritated?” she asked. I nodded. “That’s very good. Now it’s going to get tricky. Focus very hard on him until you can’t feel me or any other temperature.”
I liked her temperature, though; it was soothing… and a bit exciting. It was harder to focus because it was a boring when everyone was calm and quiet, but I did anyway. A few minutes later, I could only feel the irritating heat from Edward, which was strong enough that it was irritating me.
“Now I want you to imagine releasing that heat from him like you do energy from yourself by replacing it with new energy. Don’t bring the energy into yourself first.”
I imagined the heat draining like I was told, but for a long time, nothing happened.
“You have to want him to release that heat. That’s what he’s feeling because of the memory, and you have to get rid of that memory for his own good.”
So that he didn’t feel the embarrassment of being beat up by a girl as small as Divina, and so I could complete a spell that I could later use on my enemies to save my book, I tried harder. Nothing happened for about ten minutes, but then I could feel the heat slowly dim. It was much harder to force the energy into him than it was to pull it into me, but it was si
mple enough.
I opened my eyes to look at Edward who had his own eyes closed. As I imagined the heat fading, I could see his expression relax just a tiny bit. With the confidence of certainty, it became easier. His head swayed a little before gently laying back.
“Slow down at the end,” Divina cautioned.
I did as I felt the heat become almost nonexistent, and then it was completely gone.
“Now release all energy.”
As soon as I did, Edward raised his head, opened his eyes, looked very slightly confused, and lightly touched his jaw.
“And now you’re done. Did it work?” she asked Edward.
“It would seem so.” There was no sign of annoyance in his voice or expression and he stood up. “Using the spell you just learned, you can feel the way someone is thinking, so you can tell when they’re deceiving you. It will also help you in listening to a person’s thoughts. Later I will teach you to actually read a person’s mind and then to hide your thoughts.”
“Wait,” Divina said, “you have to let him rest. In less than three days, he learned and made a sun charm, was poisoned, nearly lost a foot, was infected, had a Guardian warning dream, learned an energy spell, and learned how to erase thoughts. He can’t keep going without at least a few minute’s rest.”
“I can go another one,” I said.
She ignored me. “So what if he can’t do magic on Anoshii? They’re not going to attack on Anoshii.”
“How do you know?”
“Other than the obvious fact that Anoshii is crowded, the gods would know if they are near. They wouldn’t want the books being found because that would make Vretial even stronger. Erono would tell you if you were in danger. Do you doubt the gods?”
“Mowa!”
I remembered that that word meant “yes.”
“My brother was killed because the gods are too simple to think that maybe Vretial doesn’t have to follow their rules. The gods are not the ones in danger; it’s everyone and everything else! They share none of their information with the Guardians who can benefit from it because they know nothing themselves!”
“Or maybe it’s because the Guardians cannot be trusted.” Though Divina’s voice was very quiet, it was much more menacing than Edward’s yelling. While Edward sounded like he was venting anger, Divina sounded like she was ready to kill what made her angry. “Maybe Vretial does have to follow the rules, but there’s a Guardian or several who are helping him take out the others. It makes much more sense.”
“No, it doesn’t. It makes more sense that they’re too self-absorbed to admit that maybe the powerful Vretial has outsmarted them!”
“You sound like a supporter of Vretial,” Divina accused.
Edward’s fists were clinched so tightly that blood was dripping to the floor. His expression and tone faded from a venting to a killing quality. “He killed my brother.”
“Vretial would have killed his brother if he could have, and that’s how the gods will see it with you. You speak so highly of Vretial. Your brother died, which would make everyone feel sorry for you and no one suspect you of being a traitor. Furthermore, they could suspect that you had your brother killed because he found out you are working for Vretial. It even gave you full access to an untrained, easily overpowered Guardian. You have to look at this from the gods’ point of view. They’re fighting a god who’s already outsmarted them, and they have no idea how. On top of that, their Guardians are losing trust in them and they’re losing trust in their Guardians, who have their books. Tiamat must be especially frustrated.”
Edward sighed, closed his eyes, and unclenched his fists. The battle was closing and Divina had won; I just had to not say anything that would start it up again. Divina had a perfectly reasonable argument that bugged the shit out of me.
“How do you know what the gods are thinking?” I asked her. Damn my stupid mouth. Edward looked at her suspiciously.
“My job often involves uncovering betrayal. I have to understand it to do what I do.”
“I don’t care how you know what you do, but if you know something important we don’t, you need to tell us,” Edward said.
Her expression was pleading and sincere. “I don’t.”
Don’t know, or don’t need to tell us? It was difficult not to voice my doubts, but even though I knew her job was sketchy, she knew things she shouldn’t, and she was apparently a natural and habitual liar, I trusted her.
Edward sat heavily as if the argument had worn him down.
“So what do you think Vretial is thinking?” I asked.
“Vretial’s mind doesn’t work the same as the other gods or people. This is probably only a careless game to him.”
“Do you or the gods know how he took another god’s world the first time?”
“Not that Erono has ever told me,” Edward said. “I’ll try to ask him, but I highly doubt it will do any good.”
“What about the other Guardians? Maybe they know something. At the very least, they should be warned,” I said.
Edward shook his head. “They wouldn’t know anything and if they did, they wouldn’t share the information. Most of us would never ask for help and only a few of us are even friends.”
That was worrisome, especially since Divina already suggested a Guardian might be betraying the gods. “Do we need to worry about one of them trying to attack us?” I asked. “Maybe if they found out about Ronez, they might try to steal my book for their own god.”
“Not likely. None of them would be foolish enough to turn on the others for fear of the rest of us retaliating.”
He pulled a deck of playing cards out of his bag. They were the same texture, size, and shape of Earth’s cards, but they had black backs and varying colored faces. They looked more similar to tarot cards. He shuffled the deck and set them on the table.
“What are those for?”
“You’ll read what I hold up from my thoughts. Clear your mind, close your eyes, and gather energy.”
Clearing my mind was difficult, but gathering energy was pretty much second nature by now.
“Now, it’ll be easier on those whose voice you have heard before. Think about the sound of my voice. Fall back into your subconscious like I showed you before. Don’t fall asleep again. When there, try to focus your thoughts on what I might be thinking, but don’t force it and keep in mind the sound of my voice.”
Getting back into the sleep/awake stage was very difficult; I was wound up and exhausted at the same time. It was an hour later before I looked up to see Edward with his head down on the table and a card in his hand, which he wasn’t staring at anymore.
“Is it a little red dragon?”
He closed his eyes with a sigh of relief. “God, finally. I was sure I was going to fall asleep. Do you know what it’s like to think of one card for an hour?” He indicated Divina, who was asleep at the foot of the bed. “Next one.”
I settled down and tried to get back into the sleep/awake state. It was a little easier, but I still took an infuriating amount of time.
“Cold queen?” I asked long while later.
He sat up and pulled another one. “Good. Next. We’ll continue this until you can read it very quickly.”
“Are you trying to teach me magic or to gamble?” He grinned and I repeated the process. It became much easier. After I could do it a few times, it really wasn’t that hard to master.
Divina awoke about three hours later and we were still at it. Edward pulled another card. We were both sitting up and Edward was wide awake. Divina saw the noticeably shortened pack.
“Promoted knight,” I said after about a minute. Edward set it down and drew another. “Plague,” I said about a minute later. He drew again. “Water spirit.” It took less than a minute.
“You’re getting good,” Divina said.
I grinned and Edward drew another one. “Gold general,” I said after a minute.
Edward put down the card and sat forward. “She’s right; you are getting good at
this. Now what am I thinking?”
That was harder, but it only took about ten minutes for me to read his thoughts and realize why they didn’t make sense. “That’s cheating! Think English!” I said. He laughed and stood. I stretched. “Are we done?” I asked. He nodded and yawned. “So what are we going to do now? Will you teach me to blow stuff up with my mind?” I asked.
“Maybe later, when you haven’t been in my head. Practice that skill and it will become second nature to you. You don’t want to use it to the point where you hear everything, because it’ll drive you nuts. Everyone can protect their minds, but I can’t tell you how many times I have overheard vital information. Once you have rested, I’ll teach you to protect your thoughts. For now, we’ll continue with weapons.”
I groaned and he left. I tried to lie back down, but Divina wrapped her arm around my shoulder and forced me to follow him.
When we got to the practice room, I was thrilled to see that Edward had picked up two wooden swords. He started by showing me how to hold the sword, then several striking motions, and finally several blocking techniques. We spent the most of our time on that. Then we tried combat where I attacked and he only blocked. I failed miserably and beat myself to the ground. Divina showed me some tricks and they both ended up trying to teach me not to hurt myself with my sword and how to fall with minimum damage. By the time Edward said it was enough, we were all sweating and breathing hard.
“I think we made progress,” Edward said. He was sitting in a crouched position with his back against the wall. Divina was sitting on her knees and leaning against his side. I was sprawled out on the floor, twitching and panting.
“This is why I don’t use real swords,” I said.
“I agree. For now,” Edward said. “Don’t ever go to Canjii. They may discover you and subject you to experiments.”
“Note taken. Can we stop now?”
“No. There are still a few more things I want to teach you before we reach Anoshii.”
“Kiro, give him a break. The poor guy can’t go on like this. You know that,” Divina said.
Though I knew she was right, I didn’t like it being said. I wasn’t a jock or macho guy, but I wasn’t a pushover either.
