Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Iam lounging on the sofa, scarfing down my eggs and flipping through a book I found on some lore about The Divine Mother as I wait for Gaius, who is still snoring loudly in the crystal cave.
It’s a beautiful ancient looking tome bound in dark leather with golden embossed lettering.
It feels like perhaps I should not be holding it with my grubby hands but I cannot resist, the curiosity pulls me in.
The book is written in English from a long forgotten time but I had a course in linguistics that I took last semester to help with my grasp of the ancient naming system for flora and fauna in the human realm.
From what I can recall from the course I am able to grasp the general gist of this text, albeit very slowly.
It is a fun puzzle to untangle and I feel the need to satiate my hunger for any sort of knowledge about this realm, the home of my parents.
Possibly my home now if I can’t pass back through The Gates.
From what I can understand, the text depicts a world in which the humans had just come into being at the hands of The Mother, shaped from the red clay of an abundant valley.
The world was one big paradise, with a large land mass surrounded by many smaller chains of islands, much the same to what it is now.
The humans seem to be the last creatures The Mother created and her reasoning was to have a creature with the power of the mind, rather than magic, to create beauty and wonders upon her.
The Mother loved all of the simpler animals that had not been gifted with the greater magics but felt she needed a companion that had the power of invention, a companion who could create like she could.
The fae seemed to be quite content using magic as their tools, which makes sense considering they seem to be stuck in some by-gone era rather than in the modern world of humans.
They have all the comforts one could need at their fingertips, quite often at the snap of their fingers.
They clearly had no reason to innovate and keep building new technology, no need for dreaming of what could be invented.
The tale goes on to describe the jealousy that the fae had of the humans’ ability to create without magic and the love and guidance they had from The Mother.
They felt, as The Mother’s first born race, they should have been favoured by her.
So the fae retaliated and began syphoning magic off of the Earth to strengthen themselves until they reached a breaking point, unable to contain what they had taken.
Originally their magic was more subtle, as if they were attuned to the fabric of the Earth but they greedily desired more.
They attempted to embody the magic of all the elements and the gifts of the animal kingdom as well, but instead they shattered themselves into Elementals and Metamorphs, only maintaining a fraction of what they were seeking.
Rather than being able to access the Earth’s magic, they retained power in much more specified ways, creating The Houses.
In The Mother’s fury, she split the world and ripped the magic from one side, creating the realms and The Gates.
The Mist was born from her tears of rage and regret, for allowing her children to grow so greedy.
Damn, that’s one angry mom.
Did the Etherealists stem from the original fae?
I scoop another mouthful of eggs in my mouth, looking up from my focus on the book and am met with a grinning Gaius, standing a foot away from me.
“Jeez Gaius, give a girl some warning!” I catch my plate of half-finished scrambled eggs as I nearly topple them on the floor.
“The crystals have informed me that I must instruct you in the art of mind walking. It is your destiny!” He squints his eyes and points his finger in the air, rather dramatically.
I swallow another bite of eggs and slam the book shut.
Gaius’ eyes snap to where I placed the book at my side on the sofa and I can see a muscle tic under his eye.
“Be careful with that! It is five hundred years old!” He scurries to my side to carefully grab it and places it back on the bookshelf, patting it and whispering something inaudible as he goes. Five hundred years old! I stare at my lap where the ancient text was lying a moment earlier.
“Wait, you want to instruct me? Is that something you can do?” I am not entirely sure that I want someone who was an outcast amongst the Mind Walkers for getting lost to teach me but I suppose some training would be better than what I am currently doing, which is absolutely nothing.
It is hard to sit still after the weeks I wasted at Pyralis’ estate.
These last two days have felt like a whirlwind…
but in a sort of exhilarating and addictive way, even though my brain is still swimming with information overload.
This world I live in is so much more vast and complicated than I ever could have known.
Magic was once steeped in every crevice of the Earth and we managed to muck it up with our greed.
It sounds all too familiar to what is going on back home in Easthelm, The Mother’s precious humans making the same mistakes, albeit centuries later.
If there isn’t anything I can do there to change people’s minds, perhaps there is work to be done here…
with my gift. I nod my acceptance to Gaius’ offer.
“The crystals shall provide the greater part of the instruction when you are ready for them. I shall be at hand to guide you on your path. Pray tell, what have you already achieved?” He waggles his eyebrows.
“Well, I can sometimes read the thoughts of others and transfer my thoughts to them but I have to touch them first and maintain eye contact. Also, up until last night I would randomly share visions with only Embrys but I think the crystals put me into my friend Oleander’s mind this morning.
Perhaps you can help me get back to her?
Or to Embrys?” I shrug, knowing it isn’t much and what I can do is pretty much out of my control.
“I see… A Mind Walker, like I.” He strokes his beard and cocks an eyebrow.
Great, I’m like this nutter…
Ha! We shall see! I hear his voice spark in my mind.
For our first lesson, let us converse, but only within the mind.
Tis’ akin to a muscle you need to strengthen.
With practice, mastery shall be attained.
You cannot just jump straight into the waking lives of others, untrained.
First, we practice with beings right in front of you.
I really feel the need to check in on Oleander and Embrys but perhaps I should listen to advice on what not to do from the man that often gets lost. I give it a try, intensely looking him in the eye.
Are you able to read everyone’s thoughts? I ask, he gives me a little excited clap.
Not all. Many have learned to shield, knowing that Etherealists walk amongst them, although now that they are perceived to be gone that may not be the case any longer.
You do need to practice with an Etheralist, which would be quite the challenge with none around.
Was there anyone who you attempted to read but there was a wall blocking you?
I chew my lip, trying to recall all the minds I have tapped into when I suddenly remember a scorching wall of flame.
“Pyralis!” I say, out loud. Gaius places both his hands on his hips, frowning at me.
Oh right! Um yes, I remember when I first met Pyralis he had a wall of flame that I could physically feel the heat of. The memory of our meeting blazes behind my eyes and I can hear the screams of the varg as Pyralis just stared at me.
Hmm yes, he must be of an age that still encountered our kind, or had direct contact with one who guided him in the art of shielding.
“My mother!” I say out loud then pinch the bridge of my nose.
Sorry, this is hard. Embrys mentioned my mother and his father were possibly…
friends. The thought of my mother befriending someone such as Pyralis irks me.
Although, if what Oleander said was true then there was a time when he was actually somewhat decent, but it is hard to believe after he just threw his own daughter under the bus for the mess he created.
“Wait! Before you went back into the crystals you thought I was someone named Ina. Was that my mother?” I switch back to talking out loud, cringing at my mistake. It’s actually very hard to stay within the mind, I don’t even notice the switch until it is too late.
Gaius makes a tut tut tut sound, crossing his arms. I am sorry dear, what I may have seen was wiped from my memory.
You must practice. I will leave you with the animals to converse while I attend to some things.
I shall return soon to see how you fare.
He says before scurrying off towards the tunnel that we entered through.
I sigh out my disappointment at him losing the information about my mother. If they are the same person then my mother was someone important to The Owl. The frustration of feeling so close to her but still not having answers feels like it is consuming me.
I decide there is nothing I can do about it right now but, if my training goes well, Gaius will let me into the crystals and I can search for her myself.
So I turn to look around for my first practice target and a bunch of the animals have surrounded me, no doubt taking orders from Gaius as well, to help me train.
I can already feel a faint headache nagging behind my eyes but try to push past it and get to work, beginning with the creatures I have already touched, starting with the grey wolf.
Her name is Selene. I learned that she had been left as the runt of her litter and has been pretty much raised by Gaius.
She wanders the forest but never strays too far from him.
Her love for him is fierce and it seems she will do whatever is needed to protect him.
Nice ally to have, I did not realize wolves felt such loyalty and I apologize to her for my original judgement.
She reassures me that my fear in her is healthy for she would do anything to protect her love.
I move on to the bunny that was in my lap which is mostly just asking for me to scratch this one spot behind his ear that he cannot reach which results in a line up of animals who have particular spots of their own that need scratching.
By the time I reach the end of the line my little headache from before has turned into a full blown migraine and I have to lie down on the sofa with a blanket draped over my eyes to ease the pounding throb.
The twinkling lights of the glow worms feel like knives sticking into my brain.
The pain overrides the frustration but I cannot help the feeling of hopelessness slowly creeping up on me again.
How could I possibly find my mother within the crystals when I am so weak.
I need to see if Oleander is all right and I crave for the connection Embrys and I have.
The more I find out about my abilities the more I remember our little shared moments growing up.
There was a certain comfort to them when I was younger, like an imaginary friend of sorts.
He would show me snippets of this magical world and allow me into brief moments of his life and it made me feel like I had something that was just mine.
I had a secret that my family had no way of knowing.
I wonder if he knew what our connection was even from a young age.
Did my mother guide him before she died?
My head starts pounding fiercely and I have to press my hands into the sides of my head to relieve some of it.
“This is why you are not ready,” Gaius’ voice sounds from somewhere near the side of the sofa. I sigh at how right he is.
“Not now, come back later.” I swat at the air, unwilling to get up, the pounding in my skull is unrelenting.
“Do other Elemental fae have to deal with this? Or do they just wake up one day and have their powers?” I groan as each word sends another throb through my brain.
I picture a tiny Embrys burning the house down and hope that their powers don’t manifest right when they are born.
It would not be fun to birth a fire wielder.
“There is a moment, usually after the age of five, that the powers manifest. Sometimes, with the very powerful, it manifests right at birth which can be difficult on the mother. Most Elemental fae have their families to guide them from a young age so it grows gradually,” Gaius says, sounding farther away from me now.
Great, I've got fifteen years of catching up to do.
Suddenly, I feel Gaius’ hands on my head and before I can swat him away and ask what the heck he is doing I feel my migraine suddenly disappear.
I rip the blankets back and sit up, and am met with a smirking Gaius surrounded by four more deer. Did they multiply? “You healed me! Can you heal people?”
I do not heal, but I can trick your mind into forgetting the pain, one of my abilities.
“Cool. Can you teach me?”
“One thing at a time! Your mind needs to rest but your body does not! Come, help me clean the soot off of our new friends.” He motions behind him and I notice the room is a lot more crowded.
“Then you may scoop out the droppings from the backroom. They have all been courteous enough to use just one room as the toilet.” Gaius claps his hands together as if the work ahead is something exciting.
Greeeat.