Elf world the complete s.., p.150
Elf World : The Complete Series, page 150
“Oh, look at that.” I tapped on the side of the globe, sort of like I was teasing a goldfish.
“Air is another.” She touched another globe, this time creating a little wind funnel inside. It whirled around inside the globe, twisting and turning with nowhere to go.
“You see?” She rotated her hand over the globe, causing the funnel to dance and twist at her will. “The power consists of many different types of energy, yet up until now, you have been trying to wield them all at once. This can be done, but at a great loss of efficiency. The only reason you’ve gotten away with it this long is because you’re so incredibly gifted. Some branches of power play nice together, while others”—she winked at me—“don’t play along well at all.
“Some strands enhance each other, while others clash badly, actually diluting their effectiveness. As you can see, wielding them all at once is not the best of all worlds, it is the worst. With so many strands of power fighting against one another, what you end up with is a chaotic flood of random energy all struggling to coexist in the same space.”
Zodarin’s cryptic words came back to me, and this time they made a lot more sense.
“Okay, what is your favorite color?” I asked back.
“Rainbow,” he said, grinning.
“Rainbow?” I repeated. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It will.”
“Okay, I think I understand now,” I said, answering the memory just as much as I was answering Clio.
She moved over to the next globe. “First, you must have a basic understanding of the power threads, and what they feel like individually. Only then can you learn to separate them so they may be wielded properly. Are you ready?”
“I am,” I said, ready to absorb her teachings to the best of my ability. Clio was a real astral walker, who by all accounts seemed to have attained full mastery of our craft. This woman could fill in the gaps where my other teachers could not. Not because they were bad instructors, they just didn’t have the knowledge.
But this woman did.
“Good.” She swept her hand across the globes. “The first step is recognition. You must see with your own eyes what the breakdown of threads actually looks like. This will seem daunting at first, but I assure you that the process will become intuitive rather quickly. Particularly for an astral walker of your level. Let’s get started.”
She spent the next several hours sparking globes to life, then trying to explain to me what each power thread was. It was daunting, just as she warned me, mostly because there were way more threads than I ever could have imagined. Spirit, dream energy, and even cosmic power were just some of the labels she gave them.
“Clio,” I interrupted at one point, scanning the globes containing anything from crackling lightning to misty vapors of dream energy. “I know we’ve just started, but I have to admit that I’m already having doubts.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean, this.” I gestured to a few random globes we hadn’t even gotten to yet. “Am I really supposed to learn how to separate each one of these...power threads, you called them? How much time is this going to—”
“Oh, Isaac,” she chuckled. “Learn? Why, that would take...” She rubbed her chin, giving me a curious look. “You really are a wildling, aren’t you? You have no idea how this works, do you?”
“None whatsoever.” I shook my head.
She took on a more serious look. “Isaac,” she said softly. “I can teach you how to combine different power threads to achieve different results. But as far as learning how to separate them in your mind, I could not teach you that any more than I could teach you how to sleep.” She paused a moment to let that part sink in.
“The procedure for that has little to do with active learning.” She sighed. “Not only that, but I’m afraid it will be very...uncomfortable. I suspect Zodarin may have forgotten to mention that part to you.”
“Nah, he didn’t forget,” I said with a shrug. “He already knew my mind was made up, so there was simply no point. When do we start?”
“Tonight,” she said, the tenseness in her shoulders visibly relaxing. For a second there, I guessed she was afraid I might turn tail and run. “In the meantime, why don’t I show you where you will be staying. After all, we will be spending a lot of time together, and I want to be sure you’re comfortable.”
“Sounds great. I’m ready for a break.”
At first, I thought these crystal trees might be entryways leading into some fawnling city deep underground, complete with shops and taverns. But in the end, it turned out to be nothing quite so fancy.
Each tree was actually an individual home, the living quarters located just below the trunk. Some housed entire families comfortably enough, while other fawnlings had one all to themselves. It was easy to forget just how small their society actually was, so a hundred or so well-kept tree homes were more than sufficient.
I had the luxury of having one all to myself, complete with a hammock strung up in the corner and a small table with two chairs. I had slept in much worse, so the modest accommodations were more than suitable for me.
I was testing out the hammock when I heard a whooshing sound coming from above, the sound of someone passing through the crystal entryway. “Isaac?” It was Clio calling down to me.
“Come on down, Clio,” I called up to her.
She came down the short flight of petrified roots that served as steps. The dark purple dress she was wearing was a lot more modest than the skintight beach outfit she had on earlier. The dress definitely looked nice on her, but I also kind of missed the skin feast I was treated to earlier.
“Hey, you look nice,” I said, complimenting her dress.
“Thank you,” she said, tossing over a bag of clothes. “As will you once you put these on.”
I struggled my way out of the low, sagging hammock, and when I looked inside the bag, I saw a whole lot of gray. The casual garments reminded me of a sweatpants and hoodie combo I might lounge around in on a lazy Sunday. “I take it we’re not going anywhere fancy,” I said, snapping open the pants first.
“I just thought you might want some clean clothes to replace those rags,” Clio said, her lips pressed tight to pin down her smirk.
“What do you mean, rags? Why does everyone keep saying that I’m wearing...” I glanced down at the filthy tan outfit I had been wearing for far too long now. “Dammit,” I muttered under my breath.
When I could see she wasn’t going to turn around or avert her eyes, I went ahead and stripped down right in front of her. Although her expression was hard to read as I changed, she sure wasn’t shy about staring at my body. Her milky eyes roamed up and down my front, lingering a bit longer near my groin until I had my pants up.
“Better?”
“Much,” I answered honestly. The soft, pajama-like outfit wasn’t going to win any fashion shows, but the thick material was extremely comfortable. “Thank you.”
Clio stepped over to the table and gestured to the other chair before sitting down. I stepped over in my fashionable new pajamas and flopped down in the seat across from her.
“Is this arrangement comfortable enough for you?” she asked, her white eyes rolling in a circle.
“The place is perfect.” First thing I did was point to the hammock. “That thing is more comfortable than most beds I’ve slept in. I could get lost in that thing.”
“I’m glad to hear it. And I have a feeling you’ll be making great use of it after tonight.” She laughed. Then her expression became more serious. “It is almost time. As I already mentioned, this will not be a comfortable experience. Part of that is because you’ve been using the power wrong for far too long now. Your mind and body have become used to it, and I’m afraid that reversing it at this stage will require a strong effort.”
“Don’t worry about that.” I dismissed her concerns with a casual wave. “I’m ready.” I really wasn’t, but what the hell else was I going to say? “This is what I signed up for. I can handle it.”
“You say that with such conviction,” she said, her gaze dropping to the table. “I can’t help but wonder if that mask of confidence you’re wearing is for my benefit”—her eyes rose to meet mine—“or for yours.”
“I have no choice but to handle it,” I rephrased my answer into something a little more honest. “We have an expression where I come from. ‘Fake it till you make it.’” I winked. “It’s a wise saying, one that’s gotten me through many situations when I knew I was in over my head.” She tipped her head and grinned, proving she got the gist of it.
“Do you know why I agreed to this, Isaac?” she asked suddenly.
“Because your good friend Zodarin asked you to, and maybe you owe him a favor?”
“Indeed, he is my friend,” she said. “But as far as favors go, that particular scale tips heavily in my direction.” I found that very interesting. “I agreed because I know your enemy.” The grin dropped from my face with the seriousness of her tone.
She rose from her seat, leaning her elbows up on the table. “I knew this man was pure evil, and I knew he had to be stopped.” She tugged at her neckline, lowering the front fabric of her dress. Between her breasts, partially hidden with makeup, was a long, puckered scar. “I was arrogant enough to face him by myself, and it nearly cost me my life.”
She sat back down, shoulders slumping forward. “And by all rights it should have cost me my life. Lucky for me, I suppose, my suffering kept him entertained. He kept me alive because he thought my screams of pain were...funny.”
My mind chewed on her words as I thought about my last confrontation with that madman. Everything was a game to him, and why shouldn’t it be? He was so completely unchallenged that he no longer took his opponents seriously.
I felt the fear of that moment creeping back into my chest, but this time I felt something else too. Rage. Seething hate for this man and everything he represented.
“I am considered to be quite powerful by nearly every measure of an astral walker,” she continued. “I say that with no ego or arrogance, I am merely stating a fact. But my fight with Zevoc was quite possibly the most humbling experience of my life. You couldn’t even call it a fight, and he toyed with me until he grew bored with causing me pain.”
She visibly shivered, and I could relate. I understood all too well the horrors she must have gone through.
She opened her eyes and fixed me with a hard stare. “You are our last hope. I know you are doing this to help your friends, but you truly do not seem to understand how many are counting on you.” A horn blew from outside, but she kept her eyes on me. “Where I have failed, you must succeed. You hear me? You must!”
The horn blew again.
“Are you ready?” she whispered.
“Of course I am,” I whispered back, pushing back my seat. “You and I will both have our revenge. This I promise you.”
Chapter 28
Fawnlings stepped aside, parting as Clio and I walked between them. I didn’t even know the others were going to be involved in this process, but it looked to me like the whole village was present.
She led me to the larger globe at the center and turned me so that my back leaned up against the pyramid stand. “Are you nervous?” she asked, her hands flowing down the length of my arms until my hands were in hers. She gave them a soft squeeze and a gentle shake before letting go.
“Of course I am,” I answered honestly. I didn’t know which was more intimidating, preparing my mind for some ritual I knew nothing about or having all these fawnlings staring at me.
“Just take it easy, Isaac. You won’t have to do anything,” she assured me. “The key is to relax your mind and let us do the rest. But you must not resist either. You must accept the process, and embrace the...”
“Pain,” I finished for her when she hesitated. “Yeah, I got it.” She nodded as ten more fawnlings moved up, circling around me.
“Relax your mind,” one of the males said, repeating Clio’s warning. “The power is deeply seated within you, and resisting could cause irreversible damage.”
“Take it deep with no lube, got it,” I groaned. Relax your mind and don’t resist. Pfft, if only it were that easy.
The circle joined hands and closed their eyes, and the moment they did, it felt like the floor dropped out from under me. “Easy, Isaac,” Clio said when I began struggling to hold my head up.
“What—what’s happening?” I moaned, my legs turning to jello. The stand at my back was the only thing still keeping me up.
“The first step is to cut you off from the power completely,” she said, her voice sounding far away. “Don’t forget, you must not resist.”
Just cutting me off from the power was making me feel like this? I had always been able to draw it in, but it never occurred to me that there might be trace amounts that were always present in my mind and body.
Being completely cut off didn’t exactly hurt, but it came as a shocking drain that left me feeling weak and helpless. I felt like I hadn’t slept for a week, and my clothes were suddenly made of lead.
I was only partly aware of the globe glowing with soft white light at my back, drawing out what little traces of power still remained in me. I was already weak, and growing weaker with each passing second. Before long, I wasn’t even sure if I was standing or sitting.
But it wasn’t only the brutal fatigue grinding away at my will, it was the longing for the tingling sweetness I had only been without for a matter of seconds. It was like needing a drug, and I was suddenly willing to do anything to get it.
But then a calming voice cut through the darkness of my mind. You must not resist, Isaac. Just hold out a little longer. It was Clio’s voice, but I couldn’t tell if she was actually speaking to me or if my disoriented mind was generating a memory from nothing.
Who knew, maybe I was just going mad.
“That’s it, he’s been cleansed,” I heard one of them say.
“Good, then get ready.” That one I recognized as Clio. “Isaac? Isaac, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I mumbled in response. My senses were so dull that I barely knew where I was. But then I snapped back a little. “Yes. Yes, I can hear you.”
“The power has been purged from your body, and now we are going to put it back thread by thread. You must acknowledge each strand one at a time, accept it for what it is before giving it a separate space somewhere in your mind. Can you do that?”
“Acknowledge each thread,” I answered drunkenly. “Acknowledge it...space in my mind.” The circle stayed in place while the other fawnlings spread out around the field, taking up places near the many globes still swirling with the energy threads Clio had put in them.
A man touched his globe with one finger, causing the crackling lightning inside to leap out. It hissed across the field in a flash and struck me right in the forehead.
Being purged of the power had not been pleasant in any way, but it hadn’t caused me any actual pain. But this? This was fucking agony of the highest level.
Blinding pain seared through my body, scorching my insides like I just drank a cup of acid. The wind thread rolling about in my mind was like a giant worm trying to eat my brain from within. The debilitating anguish was so intense that all I wanted to do was dig my fingers into my temples in an attempt to rip it out.
Acknowledge it, give it a space in your mind, or you will go insane, came a voice from somewhere deep in the back of my head. The voice of reason cut through the blinding pain, providing me with a much-needed moment of focus and clarity.
I pushed through the pain, committing all my focus on the power thread that threatened to consume me from within. I could see it clear as day in my mind’s eye, its crackling white energy searching for a place to either settle or break out.
I observed it, acknowledged it, and then ultimately accepted it for what it was. And once I did, the blinding pain mercifully began to cool. With the energy strand settled down in the corner of my mind, no longer trying to escape, it was now a welcome part of me.
When my eyes popped open, the fawnlings were all watching me, their expressions ranging from curiosity to deep concern. I needed to put their minds at ease, to somehow reassure them that I was okay.
“That will wake you up in the morning,” I rasped, shivering like I just downed a shot of raw whisky. There came several relived sighs, and some light laughter mixed in. “Keep ’em coming! I’m just getting warmed up.”
The next several hours were more of the same as fawnlings released the power threads from their globe prisons, then stood by and watched me struggle to control the wild energy.
Mercifully, none of them posed the same problem as the first one. Now with the learning curve out of the way, and a little more confidence in the process, it was really just a matter of going with the flow.
That said, the subsequent threads didn’t hurt any less than the first. Each and every time I was hit with a new one, it was a whole new struggle to quell the pain before ultimately accepting the thread.
But unlike the first time, I now knew the agony was on a time limit. If I just stayed relaxed and left my mind open, the rest would take care of itself.
Exhausted and drenched in sweat, I opened my eyes for what felt like the hundredth time. Both my mind and body felt numb from the day-long mental beating. I noticed a bit of vomit on my arm, and some more on the ground nearby. No doubt it was mine, even if I didn’t remember exactly how it happened.
Unable to stand anymore, my back melted down the stand until I was sitting right next to my puke. Clio swayed up to me. I glanced up at her, just able to manufacture a weak smile through my exhaustion. “That was the last one. It is over.” She grinned down at me, hands resting on her knees. “You did it, Isaac. How do you feel?”
“I feel great.” Are you kidding? I’m fucking exhausted. “Pfft, I’m ready for another round.” Right after I puke some more and sleep for a week.
