Chapter 28 #2
She looked at me, a forced and well-rehearsed smile splayed on her lips. “We will discuss that at another time. For now, focus on your studies. I think you will find this part of your journey at Nightfall rewarding.”
I sensed Saryna’s unspoken acknowledgment as she watched me, her eyes tightening before she turned and left.
Sighing, I opened the parchment and read through my new schedule.
Isabella showed me around the rest of the wing.
The classrooms were all nearby and connected to Alliance Hall, and at the other end was the Adept’s training area, Pegasus Hall. The last room we arrived at was different from the others. The door was unique in shape, a peculiar width with rounded corners.
“This,” Isabella said, “is the Arcanya Room.”
I raised my eyebrows, waiting for some form of explanation.
“Your first course of the day will be in this room where you will begin training to control your everi alone, or with an instructor,” she said.
“Okay,” I said. “What if someone else is using it? Do we share?”
Isabella smiled. “This room is special. When you enter it, you enter into your own space. If you enter with another person, you will be in that space together, and no one can enter it after.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why can’t it be a normal training hall?”
“Inside there, you can use the full extent of your ability without destroying anything around you,” she said. “It is how we train until we can control it enough to use it in the training hall.”
“Anna.”
I looked up to find Caelan walking toward us.
“Good,” he said, joining us, “I am glad I caught you. I wanted to offer assistance on your first session in the Arcanya Room.”
A trace of hesitation gripped me, but I masked it with a shrug. This was going to be hard enough without someone watching me, but it was Caelan. I needed to chill.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, forcing calm into my voice that I didn’t feel.
He nodded and twisted the wheel on the outside of the door and pulled. An eerie silence stretched between us as the door swung open. A weight settled in my chest as I found nothing but darkness.
“I promise it is safe,” he said. “It is constructed of all the Aurkai’s everi—that allows a mage’s everi to be contained safely within. Come on.”
I gave Isabella a small wave and followed him inside.
When I entered, I could feel it—the weight of power. It was as if gravity had amplified inside the chamber.
The mechanism of the wheel locking behind me echoed like the final beat of a dying man’s heart.
My fingers tingled as I forced even breaths, and my knees shook.
I felt them—the Aurkai—and their presence almost suffocating me.
However, my nervousness was forgotten when I took in the space around me.
It was breathtaking.
The chamber rose several stories high with spiral staircases and ladders along the walls. It was a grand library not just of books, but full of glints and gleams of shining, colorful artifacts and vivid plant life sprawled across the space.
Towering bookshelves lined the walls; their dark wooden frames draped in falling ivy. They were filled with endless leather-bound books of every size and condition. The ceiling seemed impossible, like a mosaic of blue glass and stone branching in geometric patterns high overhead.
I was in a different world. A world that was beautiful and mesmerizing; I couldn’t imagine ever leaving.
Tall gothic windows let in the same odd blue light.
I slowly meandered through the room, my hand nearing the contents of the room, careful not to touch anything.
At the center was a circular stone fountain, the water sparkling and clear, as if never disturbed by life. The cobblestone floor was uneven beneath my feet, and gardens with planted ferns and small trees thrived in the rich soil around the edges of the room. The room felt like life.
The air was fresh and nearly crackling with charge. I could feel the cool water on my skin just by looking at it. The soil was soft and humming with vitality, and I basked in the bliss of existing near it.
“This place is amazing,” I breathed, my heart pounding.
Caelan circled the fountain. “It is entirely constructed by mages,” he said. “Every Aurkai that comes to Nightfall adds something to the room with their everi. There is a purpose in every artifact in the room, and they are meant to be interacted with. Is anything calling to you?”
My heart skipped a beat.
Would something here notice me?
My lips parted in awe as I moved through the room, letting my fingers trail the spines of the books, a bejeweled dagger, and brass instruments with an unknown purpose.
I paused, searching the room.
Everything whispered, some quickly, in mutterings I didn’t understand, while others sang a song that called to my soul. The everi surrounding me was like a life force, and the more of it, the stronger the presence.
Each relic had its own voice, but one called to me the loudest. One that did not sing or whisper.
This one was silent.
On a table was an amulet with a silver chain that held a large emerald. Four silver prongs encased the stone that was about the size of my palm. I lifted it, feeling the intensity of my connection to it more swiftly than I had even Blake’s everi.
It was beautiful and possibly made me a little light-headed. I set it down.
What was this?
Why was it quiet when everything else hummed?
Such stillness was beautiful.
Caelan watched me, his posture stiffening.
“Fascinating,” he murmured.
“What?” I asked.
“Usually, Adepts go for one of the elemental-based items,” he said. “The candles, the fountain, the soil,” he said.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Perhaps you have an affinity for fine jewelry?”
I smiled in amusement and set the amulet back on the table.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said, still looking into the clear and mystifying depths.
“Well done, Anna. You did it; you sensed the everi in the pieces added to this room. Some mages have similar everi to others in the same way we can have similar or dissimilar personalities. As you become more familiar with your everi, you will begin to draw it out and wield it to interact with the world around you in ways you couldn’t before. Can you feel it in your veins?”
I nodded, mesmerized at the sensation.
And happy.
I was happy.
This was a part of me. Something I’d felt my entire life, and now I was beginning to understand it. Why I was different. Why I was weird. Why my mom never cared about living a ‘normal’ life.
It was because of this.
Even if it invited danger into my life, it was as if I’d discovered a family photo album buried in the attic.
It was coursing through my body like an infusion of a potent drug cocktail meant to bring someone back to life. Coiling, twisting and tightening, it moved through my body as surely as my own emotions did.
Caelan watched me with an amused tug at the corner of his mouth.
“Choose your dominant hand and focus on your fingertips,” he said. “Imagine yourself drawing all of that energy to the tips of your fingers.”
I took a deep breath. I focused on the wild, churning power inside. It was foreign, familiar, and terrifying all at the same time. I pulled on it from within, drawing it out in waves.
It was an inexplicable feeling.
It was as if I wasn’t as alone as I was before.
Even if my mom wasn’t here, my everi was. Bound to my soul, it was a power that was mine and meant to protect me.
I stretched my right arm out and opened my hand.
It was working. It was flowing through me like the blood in my veins. It swirled and burned as it pooled in my hand.
I imagined it cooling and condensing.
A weight formed in my palm and my hand began to shake. I snatched my wrist with my other hand, trying to hold it steady.
My arm quivered as all my muscles in my right arm strained to contain the everi flowing through it. It was getting faster and faster.
“Good,” Caelan said. “Now draw it out.”
I stilled my mind. My entire body was tingling with energy and it was getting harder to breathe. I forced my lungs to draw in air, my focus on my hand as I continued to pull at the everi from within.
Then, without warning, it erupted in my palm.
Soft, nearly invisible wisps flashed in and out of view, getting more visible the harder I pulled. A pain tore through my hand. I screamed, certain my flesh had seared open as I released my wrist, and the everi being channeled into my arm dissipated.
My heart raced as I stumbled back.
I stood there, my arm shaking as I caught my breath.
The pain was gone nearly as quickly as it had come.
My hand was unharmed as if nothing had happened.
My everi was calming inside, receding to the depths it had been summoned from.
“That was well done, Anna,” Caelan said.
“The pain you felt is normal, unfortunately. You will get past it quickly as your body adjusts to the changes occurring. Releasing that amount of energy is stressful to the body, and you will learn to accommodate the pain and healing process required with practice.”
I grimaced, my bones hanging from my shoulders like anchors, and my heart racing. I was exhausted from that one attempt.
This was going to take forever.
“How long for the feeling of utter failure to not crush my soul every time I do this?” I asked.
Caelan laughed.
“I’ve seen Adepts take anywhere from a matter of weeks to a matter of years to adapt to using everi. And some,” he said, his voice quieting, “never do. Do not dwell on that, though. It will not help you as you train.”
My pulse regulated as I sat by the pool, trailing my finger in the water. “What is this in here for?”
Caelan gently lifted his hand, almost lazily, and the water swirled.
“Demonstrations,” he said.
My lips parted in awe as I watched globes of water rise from the pool before they turned to steam.