14. Raya
RAYA
“Raya’s stitches are healing perfectly… however, is it her mental state that I worry about.”
- ELIJAH’S MEDICAL JOURNALS.
Ifollowed Khol’s tense body down the corridor. At first, I thought we were in a palace, the grand rooms and ancient inscribing reminded me of that of the Foothills but the further we walked, the more it became obvious that we were not in a castle.
We were in a temple.
It was not clear who or what the temple was worshipping but marble carvings of naked goddesses and ancient prayers I could barely translate littered every nook, corner, and wall. I slowed, staring at a painting covering an entire wall. It was a woman, tall and fair-skinned, she held a ball of light in one hand and a flicker of fire in the other. Her hair floated around her head as though she had stopped gravity herself. A shiver crept up my spine as I thought of my own hair rising back at the safe house.
“Raya,” Khol snapped, breaking my concentration, I jogged over to him, turning to take a last look at the painting. The smell of fresh cut grass and my mother’s perfume enveloped me again.
“Do you smell that?” I whispered.
Khol stopped outside wooden double doors, so tall I had to crane my neck to see the top of them.
“I smell freshly brewed coffee and…” his voice trailed off at the end, his brows furrowed. I cleared my throat nervously.
“It’s magic,” he muttered. “Some say it smells of love.” He cleared his throat. “Get used to it, there’s plenty of magic here.”
I nodded, taking in the new information.
Movement in the corner of my eye stole my attention, Khol was wringing his hands. I smiled smugly.
“What do you have to be nervous about?” I asked, he didn’t even look in my direction.
“I’m the one who has been dressed up like a doll and taken to a ‘grand hall’…” I gasped dramatically and said mockingly. “Am I going to be sacrificed?” Khol rolled his eyes.
“They wouldn’t dare,” he said, and my smile fell. “I am not nervous for myself, I’m nervous for what is to come.” He pushed the doors open as though they weighed nothing and strode into the room.
The domed ceiling looked as though it was made of solid gold, a lone table stood in the middle of the room. The smell of meat, cheese, and fresh bread filled my nostrils and my stomached growled loudly. A women sat at the head of the table, glasses perched on the edge of her nose as she read from a large scroll. Her dark hair was littered with grey strands and her tanned skin marked with scars, and a snake tattoo wrapped around her bicep. She lifted her head when Khol cleared his throat.
“Khol darling, come on, sit down.” She stood, walking over to us with the grace of a dancer. “Your father is just taking Ottie to bed, he won’t be long,” she said softly before turning to me. “You must be Raya,” she said, completely unfazed by my presence. “I am Ezra, I’m glad the dress fits. I thought you’d feel comfortable in green.” She smiled before moving back to her seat, gesturing for us to do the same.
I felt my insides curl as I began to sit, what was going on? Why was everyone acting as though it was completely normal for us all to be eating together? And what was going on with Ezra and Khol? I sighed.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, breaking a bread roll with her hands.
“Ezra, she wants answers, not bread,” Khol said. “And so do I.”
“Khol, I wish you would not call me Ezra, I am your mother, show some respect,” she sighed.
“Raya can tell you why she’s here.” She turned back to her bread.
“Ezra,” I said, the name feeling foreign in my mouth. “I do not know why I am here.” Did they know what had happened at the safe house?
“Yes, Raya, we know what happened at the safe house.” My eyes shot to meet Ezra’s. Khol rolled his eyes.
I huffed a sigh as the fresh cut grass wafted near me. I was already getting sick of the smell. Ezra set her knife and fork down.
“Clearly, Khol has not been so open with his knowledge.” She threw an irritated look towards her son.
“You are gifted, Raya, that is why you are here. That is why the Sage Guard were bound to let you live with your people. Just like me and Khol and almost everyone here.” Her words sunk into my skin.
“Do all Sorcerers live here?”
“Most but not all, Sorcerer’s on the Southern Continent have their own Temple, we liaise with them often.” She flicked a non-existent piece of fluff from her shoulder.
“It is safe here, Raya,” Khol chimed in. “That is why we live here. Out there,” he thumbed toward The Temple walls, “we are hunted and tortured.” He stared at my body as if he could see the scars beneath my clothes.
“And if I want to leave?” I said, back ramrod straight. Khol pulled out a chair for me and I sat, reaching for a bread roll.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave, not yet.” Ezra’s voice was sweet and deadly.
“I thought this wasn’t a prison?” I turned to Khol, who stopped with a forkful of meat halfway to his mouth.
“The Temple is not a prison, it’s a sanctuary for our kind.”
I bristled at her words.
“If you wish to leave, you may. But not until you have control, I will not risk my family,” she said sternly.
“What do I have to do with your family?”
“If they find out about you, they will find our Temple and we’ll all be dead before the sun has set.” Ezra finally made eye contact with me. “You can leave when you gain control and you are no longer a threat.” The double doors swung open again, and a tall, red headed man swept into the room.
“She is finally asleep,” he stated before joining us at the table, planting a swift kiss on Ezra’s cheek. He was gracefully handsome, much like an older version of Khol. The same smattering of scars covered his arms and a curved tattoo sat around his right eye. Happiness oozed from him. He grabbed a Turkey leg and dug in, completely ignoring my presents. Ezra cleared her throat.
“You must be Raina,” the man choked around the food in his mouth.
“Raya,” Khol and I corrected simultaneously. The man hummed a response before silence enveloped us.
“And his is my father, Jonas,” Khol spoke through gritted teeth.
“Ah yes, Jonas, sorry. You’ll have to accuse my manners. It has been quite the day.” Jonas smiled sweetly.
Khol had kept quite the secret. He was the son of The Temple’s leader, and he was my way to freedom.
I sat on my bed, my arms wrapped around my legs. Suddenly my big room seemed very small. Perhaps I should’ve eaten more at lunch, I didn’t have the energy to remove my dress or sleep, and my traitor stomach’s rumble filled the room. At some point I began to cry, I wasn’t sure when I started but I couldn’t stop. I sat there, curled in a ball until I fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of my life at the orphanage, dreaming of Matron’s burned pies.
A soft knock woke me, my eyes almost swollen shut from crying. The sun had only just begun to set.
“Raya?” a soft whispered filled the room. “It’s Elijah, may I come in?” he asked poking his head around the corner, and I nodded. He crept in softly, a plate of food in his hand and his brown satchel on his shoulder.
“You slept through dinner,” he said, setting the plate down and helping me sit up. I reached for the plate, but the food tasted like ash in my mouth.
“May I look at your stitches?” he asked gently, and I nodded again. Elijah inspected them softly, nodded, whispering to himself, and writing in a small brown note pad.
“You are healing brilliantly.”
I smiled weakly and he perched on the armchair beside my bed as I forced the food down.
“Ezra is a good woman,” he said with a smile. “She is not keeping you here to punish you, she wishes to help you.” He rolled up his sleeve and showed me the stump where his arm used to be. “She has helped me a great deal, I’ve lived here for the last twenty years as a healer.” He stood from his chair and brushed of his spotless trousers, and I watched him thoughtfully as he walked to the window and paused. “There are people in this world who wish to hurt people like us. Those people claim to be protecting the world, but they have wiped out hundreds of bloodlines and families.” He looked to me, letting all of his sorrow and anguish lay upon his face. “They have told the world that our kind is extinct and it’s better to keep it that way. If you leave without learning how to control your power, you will draw attention to us and then none of us will be safe.” A small smile graced his face as he pushed his glasses up.
“Do you understand?” he asked and I nodded.
“What is your gift?” I asked and he grinned.
“Shall I show you?” He closed his eyes, smile splitting his face and… disappeared, only to reappear seconds later the other side of the room. I gasped.
“I am a jumper, a form of MindWondering,” he said. I blinked, and he was back in the chair.
“Why are you a healer?” I asked suddenly filled with energy.
“My jumping is helpful in battle, but we do not need to fight anymore,” he sighed. “And I wish to help people, because no one helped me.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment, it felt like Elijah and I had known each other for years. Soft guilt tried to pierce my heart for what I had to do. Elijah had known loss, just like I had. He had no other place to turn, just like me. I reached out and grabbed his hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered, I finally had some of the answers I craved.
“Can I ask you a question?” I blurted, catching Elijah as he turned to leave. He nodded with a kind smile. “Before…” Words evaded me.
“Your… awakening?” Elijah finished for me.
“Yes, before my awakening, I heard these voices in my mind. Strange voices that I hadn’t heard before or recognized.” I prayed Elijah didn’t think me strange for asking such questions. “I was hoping you knew what they were?” I finished with a grim smile.
He stopped for a moment, really soaking up the words and thinking deeply before he began pacing.
“It could be rogue Sorcerers,” his voice cut through the silence, making me jump.
“Probably MindWonderers by the sound of it, trying to mess with your mind.” He rolled his eyes, as though he was scorning small children.
“But why?” My curiosity bubbled within me.
“Perhaps they sensed the strength in your power? Perhaps they were spying for the Sage Guard? I can’t be sure.”
“They knew my name, and the name of my… friend,” I spoke softly, his words catching up with me. “There are Sorcerers that work for the Sage Guard?”
“MindWonderers can reach into your mind, take knowledge without you even noticing.” He chuckled, possibly at my naivety. “And yes, those Sorcerers help the Guard hunt us, that is why we stay within the walls of The Temple, because it is safe here.”
I sucked in a breath, nodding solemnly.
“What is it?” Elijah asked, watching me thoughtfully. I wanted to tell him that I was shocked, that I could have spent my life hunting Sorcerers, hunting him. But I wasn’t ready to part with that information, not yet.
“I thought the voices…” I hated how weak I sounded, “I thought they would have meant something or been useful in some way.” I shrugged, hoping to seem as unbothered as possible.
“I suppose they were not useless,” Elijah smiled. “They guided you toward your power, toward The Temple.” He squeezed my shoulder.
“I’m pretty sure it was the house I blew up and the dozen soldiers I obliterated that led me here.” My voice was flat.
This time Elijah shrugged. “Semantics.”
He hopped of the edge of the bed.
“You can open the doors,” Elijah said as he walked toward the door.
The setting sun called out to me so I slipped off the bed, opened the doors, and stepped out onto the balcony. Closing my eyes, I smiled at the sweet breeze sweeping my hair over my shoulders. The sun rays seemed to engulf me, wrapping me in their light. If the balcony was not beneath my feet, I would have thought I was flying. I called to the feeling deep down in my stomach. The feeling I dared not touch for the last nineteen years, the feeling that had caused me to lose everything. I felt my hair leave my shoulders, I felt the halo above me, and my smile widened. Ecstasy rolled over me, but I kept it tampered down. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight. I called forward a bit more.
And just like that, the serene sky was gone, and lightning struck the balcony, missing me by only inches. In my surprise I let go of my tightly gripped power and fire blossomed in my hands. Panicked and dazed I pulled and pulled the power back down, but it did not listen.
Suddenly a thought dawned on me.
I was not in control.
Take a breathI heard my mother’s voice, almost like she was standing right behind me. And I did. The light struck again, scaring me. The smell of my mother’s perfume became sickly sweet around me.
Take a breath. And I did.
The fire warmed my palm intensely but did not burn my skin. My hair remained in the air, but the halo was gone.
Take a breath. And I did.
The dark began to lighten. Sweat trickled down my back and my body ached with tiredness.
I could not keep doing this. The fire went out just as my knees buckled under my weight. I fell and stayed on the balcony.
It seemed a good a place as any to sleep.