Daven felt as though he were chasing the sickness coursing through his patient and he soon realized he would have to figure out another way of treating the problem or he would be too exhausted to work on the other victims. He stilled his thoughts and allowed the healing energy emanate from him. Without conscious direction, Daven felt his touch on the patient’s life-line spread throughout her body, and all of the affected cells seemed to snap back into perfect health. Just as he had predicted, the woman dropped to the ground in exhaustion, able to rest now that her ordeal was over. He swiftly healed her feet even as the onlookers surged forward to pick her up and take her back to her home.
Having a better understanding of what he was working against, Daven shifted his attention to another dancer; an old man who seemed on the verge of collapse. Again, he tied into the man’s life-line and cleared the infected cells from throughout his body. This process was repeated until all of the gyrating dancers were healed and removed from the square. Daven was both relieved and exhausted from his efforts, yet knew he was only half done with this work. Now he had to discover the cause of everyone’s sickness.
He turned to the left and found the community leader standing by his side. “Lukon, can we go to your house and talk about all of this?”
“Certainly! Right this way,” he spoke with alacrity. He bent and picked up the Elder’s bag for him and led the man to his house. It was apparent that Elder Daven needed some refreshment, so he called out to his wife, upon entering the house, “Scarola, please get food and drink for Elder Daven.”
Once the three were seated at the table with glasses of cold steena tea along with a platter of cheese and bread, Daven felt up to the task of talking. He picked up his tea and took a long drink while he composed his thoughts. “We need to find out what each of those people had in common to make them all display the same symptoms. Do you have any ideas?”
The couple looked at one another with expressions of inquiry as they both considered the Elder’s question. They knew every person who had been affected, yet they could not come up with any answers.
“I’m sorry, we just don’t know,” Scarola finally said quietly. She felt a deep despair, as though she were letting the Elder down in some manner.
“It’s okay,” Elder Daven consoled as he picked up a piece of cheese and placed it on a chunk of bread. He enjoyed the sharp taste of the cheese as he chewed his bite until something strange happened; he felt a tingling in his mouth. In an instant, his body registered the same feeling as he had discovered inside the sickened cells of the other residents. He spat the bite out into his hand and looked at it to see if he could see something amiss. “Where did you get this cheese and bread?”
Scarola stammered in confusion as she watched her guest spit out his food. “I made the cheese myself, from the milk of our foxl. I bought the bread from the vendor earlier today. I don’t understand. Is something wrong?”
“I think we might have just discovered the source of the problem. How many people get bread from the same vendor?”
“Almost all of us. It’s something we’ve become accustomed to doing ever since he came to town.”
“How long has he been in town?”
“Just short of a mesan. Why?”
“Where did he come from?”
“I don’t know. Do you, honey?” She turned to her husband hoping he would begin talking so she would not feel as though she were being interrogated by the Elder. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes, and she desperately wanted to hide in shame for what had just happened in her home.
“Please don’t worry yourself, Scarola. Believe me when I say this was the best possible scenario, and quite possibly the quickest diagnosis I’ve ever encountered.” Elder Daven tried to soothe his host since he did not want to create any bad feelings because of his hasty reaction to the food. Upon reflection, he should have simply used his own ability to heal, to purify the taint in the food and just swallow it.
“Are you saying there’s a problem with the bread?” Lukon asked, finally comprehending the Elder’s questions.
“Yes, I believe so. Can you take me to the bread vendor?” Daven pushed away from the table and stood up. His mind raced with thoughts of how widespread this epidemic could be if everyone from the town had purchased their bread from the same street vendor. He was first to the door and opened it in his urgency to find the unknown man.
The three of them almost ran through several streets before Lukon stopped in front of a shanty house and knocked on the door. The flimsy wood shook on its unstable hinges with the force of Lukon’s blows. Several tense seconds passed while they waited for someone to answer the loud summons.
With no sounds coming from inside, Lukon flung open the door and marched through the opening, ready to do bodily harm to the breadmaker. He was further frustrated to find his quarry was already gone. He turned rapidly around in a circle to see if the man were in any of the corners of the small room.
“It looks as though someone left in a hurry,” Daven commented as he surveyed the scattered items in the dim interior space.
“I’ll gather men to begin a search for him right now,” Lukon spat out as he pushed past Elder Daven.
“Don’t bother.” Daven put his hand on Lukon’s arm to keep him from following through on his plan. “I imagine he is long-gone by now and it would be a waste of time. Our most pressing concern is how many other people are currently eating the tainted bread.”
Lukon’s flushed face instantly turned an unhealthy ashen color as he realized what Elder Daven was saying. Thinking about his community’s welfare, he said, “I’ll go to the market square and ring the meeting bell.”
“We can all go together,” Daven offered as the three of them made their way out of the abandoned house.
Daven approved of the speed at which the community returned to the center of town at the summons of the bell. He scanned the faces in the crowd for any evidence of sickness beginning and was pleased to see everyone appeared to be in good health. He raised his hands to help ensure silence from the crowd and bellowed, “We have determined the source of the illness has come from the bread sold from the new street vendor.”
The noise from the gathering was instantly deafening as the people called out for the man to be brought to justice for what he had done to their loved ones.
Lukon finally yelled for silence, allowing Elder Daven to continue.
“The vendor has already left town, and I doubt you will have to worry about seeing him ever again. The more immediate concern is for anyone who currently has bread, or has consumed bread, from him in the past few days. If this does not apply to you, then I ask you to please return to your homes and allow me to examine and heal those who have ingested the bread.”
The volume of the crowd increased momentarily as the people shifted and grumbled. Finally, after about five minutes, only the affected people remained in the square. More people stayed than Elder Daven had anticipated and he knew he would have to call on a large amount of elemy just to get himself through all of the exams he would be performing.
“Form a line, and we will begin,” Daven called out to the remaining crowd even as he gathered elemy for his use.
Chapter Thirteen
VALENTINA MOPED AROUND her house on her first full day of Christmas break. Normally, she would have been excited for the time away from school where she could catch up on reading some of her favorite books. Instead of being content and lost in a good story, she was living her own real-life soap opera where all she could think about was hurting one of her best friends while she plotted to steal her boyfriend; even worse, he was her best friend’s fiancé.
Try as she might, she could not help but wonder what Willian was doing and if he had been thinking about her as well. More than once she had picked up the phone to call him, only to chastise herself for being too forward.
Maybe if they spent some time apart, they would realize their mutual attraction was just…just what? An accident? No,
that definitely was not right. What she felt for Willian touched the core of her being, even more than her triplet connection had ever been. No amount of time apart was going to lessen the desire she felt just at the thought of Willian.
Giving up, Valentina sat at the desk in her room and picked up the phone. She stared at the buttons for several seconds before she finally mustered the courage to dial the number. Holding her breath, she put the phone to her ear and impatiently listened to the ring tone on the other end. She silently prayed for Willian to pick it up since she had no idea what she’d say to his foster family should they answer.
“Hello?” a male voice asked.
“Willian? Is that you?” She really did not need to ask since she could already feel Willian’s energy coursing through the phone line.
“Yes. Hey, Val, I’m so glad you called. I couldn’t get you off my mind.”
“I know what you’re saying. This is too much, Willian. What are we going to say to Jena when she gets home?”
“I could probably get a message to her before then if you wanted me to.”
“What would you say to her? I found someone new. Sorry…oh, and it’s your best friend! Really, Willian, there’s no good way to write it to her without sounding terrible.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound pretty bad.” Willian sat on his bed, picked up Pesi so she would quit making growling noises to be lifted up, and leaned back against the wall, content just to listen to Valentina speak to him. Pesi climbed onto his outstretched legs and plunked herself down, throwing her back feet out, and taking up as much room as she could. Willian looked fondly on the furry pet and began to stroke the soft hair along her back.
Valentina let out a deep breath and suggested, “Why don’t you tell me about your family?”
“Well, let’s see, my dad is the First Elder…”
“Why do you say it like that? Is there a second and third Elder?”
Willian chuckled before replying, “No, but I can see where you might think that. He was voted in as the First Elder; I guess you could say he is the leader of the Elders. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. Okay, I’m sorry to interrupt. Go ahead.”
“It’s alright. I’d rather you ask me your questions than you discover something in an embarrassing way when you get back home.”
Valentina’s mind immediately thought about the prospect of going back to Tuala permanently. Certainly, she had entertained the idea of visiting the place now and again to see her mother, but she had not actually decided she would move there. This notion of uprooting her life was going to require some serious consideration.
“Anyway, my father is the First Elder, and he’s forty-nine anons old and the second youngest Elder.”
“How old are the other Elders?”
“Senjin is the youngest at forty-three, while the other thirteen range anywhere from mid-sixties to one hundred and thirty-seven anons.”
Valentina sputtered slightly and thought she probably did not hear correctly, so she asked, “Did you say one hundred and thirty-seven as in years old? Are anons somehow different than years?”
“No, they’re the same. Elders and their families physically age slower than other people in Tuala. It helps to keep continuity within their Districts to have fewer changes of leaders.”
“Oh,” Valentina said lamely. “But what about your extended family? How would the difference in aging affect them?”
“Elders’ families aren’t typically large, but if they do have siblings, then they can opt to live at the Residence and age at the same rate as the Elder. No one really thinks about it much because it’s always been this way. My father doesn’t have any extended family, so we haven’t had to do that.
“My mother’s name is Chelesa, and she met my father when they were in a post-study class together. She’s awesome; you’ll love her, and I’m sure she’ll love you, too.”
Valentina kept quiet since she was having a hard time reconciling the idea of moving to Tuala permanently.
“My mom is a wise-woman as well as being the wife of an Elder, which has a lot of duties attached to it already. Her days are completely packed with patients and petitions from the community for favors and help with civil matters too small to bring to the Elder’s attention. Tell me about your family?”
“My family on Earth or the one in Tuala?”
“Both, if you don’t mind.”
“On Earth, my father’s name is Oliver Wilson, and my mom’s name is Zoey. They met at the bowling alley. My dad worked there, and when my mom came in there with a group of her friends, she thought he was cute. After having him retrieve her fourth gutter ball from the lane, he decided he should ask her out. They’ve been together ever since.
“As for my Tualan family, my mother is Vinia who was raised at the Roanoke Colony and is now the interim leader of the community. She sent the three of us away to Earth when we were eight to keep us safe and to get medical help for Jon since he was deathly ill and the leader of the colony continually refused to allow medical attention.”
“What about your real father? What’s his name?”
“We don’t know; our mother won’t talk about him.”
“That’s weird. I wonder why,” Willian mused. Wishing to change the subject, Willian asked, “What’s with all of the strange classes you have to take in school?”
“What do you mean? They’re all really normal here. How are they different than what you’ve done in Tuala?”
“Our main focus is on using elemy. Of course, we all learn math, writing, and history.” He tried to think about how he could explain the differences and came up without anything. It was almost as if his brain were short-circuiting while he was talking with Valentina.
“We’d probably think it was like a wizarding school if it’s anything like I imagine it to be.”
“Didn’t you ever go to school in Tuala before you left? You did say you were eight when your mom sent you, right?”
“The Roanoke Colony keeps to themselves. They weren’t much on education, and they did not allow the people to get birth crystals so there wouldn’t’ve been much point in that training anyway.”
“I don’t understand. I thought you had your own birth crystal.” Willian was becoming increasingly worried about the prospects of him being able to marry her if she did not even possess her own link to the elemy.
“The three of us do have them, but they have always been kept a secret from the people where we were living. Much like here, the people only see what they want to see.”
Relief washed through Willian at Valentina’s admission to having a pendant. Their situation just became immensely easier because of it. “So have you ever learned how to use the elemy?”
“Jena and Juila have been teaching us. We just discovered our true origins only a short time ago, and we’ve got a lot yet to learn to catch up with other kids our age, I’m sure.”
“What’s the furthest level you’ve mastered?”
Not sure if she had been learning the skills in the same order as Willian had, she answered, “Behn and I have both gotten through the memorization level, and Jon is a little behind, at freezing water, in fact, because he just started.”
“Would you like me to give you lessons? I think it could be fun.”
“I’m not sure. It’s kind of hard keeping it a secret from our parents.”
“We could practice it here at my house. Melissa and Marcus already know about where I’m from, and they would be sure to give us privacy to study.”
“I’m not sure privacy would be wise for us, Willian,” Valentina replied slowly. She instantly recalled the moment’s lapse of judgment which ended with Jon punching Willian in the gut.
Wishing he did not have to say it, Willian answered, “Bring your brothers. We can all work on it together. Please say you will, it’ll be fun.”
“I’ll ask them. If they say no, then I can’t come over there alone.”
Trying to keep hi
s voice cheerful, he answered, “No problem, just let me know what they say. We can start tomorrow if you want.”
“Okay. I should probably get going. I’ll talk to Behn and Jon, and I’ll call you back tonight to give you our answer. Thanks, Willian.”
“For what?”
“Just…I don’t know. Goodbye.” Valentina hung up the phone swiftly and hit her thigh with her fist at how badly she had ended the conversation. Willian must surely think she was an idiot now if he had not already.
She left her room to see what her brothers thought about learning the crystal skills from Willian. Knowing Behn, he would be amenable; however, Jon was a different matter entirely. With the tense scene between Jon and Willian from the day before fresh in her mind, she opted to talk to Behn first.
Valentina leaned into Behn’s bedroom and tapped lightly on the door to catch his attention. “Do you have a minute?”
“Sure. What’s going on?” He set aside the magazine he was reading onto his nightstand and pulled his legs up to give his sister room to sit on his bed with him.
Valentina took the offered spot near him and jumped right in with what she was thinking. “I just got off the phone with Willian. He asked if we would be willing to have him teach us to learn more crystal skills. He said we could start tomorrow.”
Behn cocked his head to the side, smiled, and said, “And it wouldn’t hurt to be able to spend more time with him during the break!”
Valentina actually blushed at her brother’s taunt. “I can’t say I’d mind, actually.” She chuckled and then became serious again as she moved on to her next point. “Do you think Jon would be willing to go?”
Raising his eyebrows, Behn considered his sister’s question. It would be a tricky matter where Jon was concerned. “I’ll talk with him if you want.”
Ascension Vision- The Levels of Ascension Box Set Page 37
