The Alchemist's Children: Panacea

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  Callen sat down on his bed and Ania sat at his desk. He waited for his sister to start talking. He couldn't help but look skeptical as she visibly struggled with finding words to explain her situation. "Well?" He said impatiently. The horrific scene of Renee's death still at the forefront of his memory.

  After a few moments, she started. "Umm, I have been trying to figure out how to tell you without you thinking I'm crazy or evil..."

  "What?"

  "Promise you won't think I'm crazy or evil?"

  "I have no idea..."

  "Just promise."

  "Okay..."

  "And no making fun of me."

  "Fine."

  Ania nodded. "Well, I really don't know how else to explain it, but, first, I started seeing colors around all sorts of stuff. I noticed it one day in school when I had a migraine. Recently the colors have been kinda talking to me and telling me things about everything."

  "Umm...what?" Callen asked.

  "You think I'm crazy..."

  "Ah, no, I just don't know what you're trying to tell me."

  She shook her head. "I was hoping you'd say you saw it too."

  "Ah...umm...no..." Callen said.

  "It's like the Predator's vision, but not..."

  "Inferred?"

  "Yean, but no. People become shadows surrounded by a glow of rainbow colors. The colors tell me things..."

  "What? How can color talk?" Callen said. "I see colors every day too. Colors are just the brain's interpretation of wavelengths of light. Objects absorb and reflect certain wavelengths which results in an object having a specific..."

  "No." She cut him off. "That's not what I mean. You can't find what I am talking about in biology or physics books. I'm not talking about light or how the eye sees. It's something different."

  "Ok," Callen said skeptically. "So, describe."

  "You don't believe me, do you?" She sounded disappointed.

  "No, it's not that at all. I just don't understand what you mean, and you haven't told me enough to even decide."

  "I just thought that after all this with those monsters, the dwarves, this whole place, you might actually believe me."

  "I never said I didn't believe you. I just don't get what you're talking about."

  She sighed. "I guess I was hoping that you would say that you have it too...I guess there is no point in..."

  "Stop. You're jumping to conclusions. Just start from the beginning."

  She stared at her brother with her big eyes. "Ok, well...you know when I was little and Mom and I were with you in the hospital and I started screaming?"

  "Yeah. Dr. James was there and he sent you to a neurologist because the symptoms pointed to migraines. I remember you talking about a shimmering in your eyes. Then after the test the doctors gave you medicine and it made them go away."

  "You do remember."

  He nodded.

  "Well, the medicine never really worked. No matter what I would always have to go to sleep in a dark room to get rid of them. Then when I started school, and Mom was either working or with you at the hospital, I couldn't ever go home to sleep. Since the medicine didn't work, I just didn't take it."

  "Alright."

  "Well, the shimmering moved sometimes and sometimes I saw it around people. I could never really focus on it and when I tried the pain got worse. Mom got me tested, of course, for any medical problems, but the only thing that showed up was migraines."

  "So, what changed? Migraines are pretty common...and I remember Mom saying that shimmering was a common symptom."

  "I saw them again in Grandpa's truck when we were escaping those horrible creatures; then again in church when I went with Sadie and Tende...though, I realized I could focus on the shimmering. The shimmering became a glowing of a collage of colors. There were colors over the altar, over the people, over some of the objects, and the holy water looked like a swirl of rainbows. It was like the objects were glowing."

  "So your vision became a big blur of hazy colors?"

  "No. The colors didn't mix all the time, and everything living puts off different combinations of colors. I was only able to focus on one set at a time. It is like when you look at an object with your normal eyes you are focused on the object, can see its details. However, you can still see the other stuff around it but that other stuff is all blurry."

  "Ok, I sort of get it. I can at least picture it now. So, people glow with colors?"

  "Yes. But there is more, well...since I started going to church, I have been getting fewer migraines but the color shimmering remains. It comes and goes as it pleases mostly...but sometimes I can do it when I want to. But, that's when it hurts. Then I started meditating with Tende and the monks. The pain started to go away completely and I have been able to see the colors when I want."

  "So, what does this have to do with what happened to Renee?"

  "I saw the colors and I just knew what they meant. I don't know how or why, I just did. It was like I have always known what they mean and have always seen them. It felt as natural as breathing. It all just matched up right then. The colors, and my research that I have been doing, and..." She stopped herself. "Some of the colors I don't understand though, like black, white, and some of the others. I have started seeing the colors move from people to objects, like when making holy water or bless the wine and bread at mass. I get a lot of feelings about them all, but what each one means...I'm not sure."

  "Maybe we should look it up?" Callen suggested. "That's what I always do when I don't understand something."

  "I did as much reading as I could from the monastery's library, but nothing covers this. Some of it talked about halos around holy people...but that was the closest I found. There is some lore on psychic abilities and auras, but it's so vague. Most of the stuff Dr. Webb possesses relates to research given to him by a contact in the Azure Dawn, but...the research is incomplete..."

  "Azure Dawn?" Callen asked.

  "A mage order," Ania said. "They're a fraternity of occult research and practice." She paused. "Wait, you didn't think this order that our parents were apart of is the only one did you?"

  "To tell you the truth, I hadn't given it much thought," Callen admitted.

  "Well, there are quite a few that are known..." She said. "And even more that aren't."

  "Secrets breed more secrets, I guess." Callen sighed. "So, what do you think this means? I mean the stuff with you?"

  "So, you're saying that you believe me?"

  "Who says I doubt you?"

  "Your colors."

  "Oh. I guess I just don't understand, but don't worry I don't think you're evil."

  "Thanks." She smiled. "But there is one thing that has really been bothering me. Your colors have been changing rapidly since we got here. That's what really sparked my whole research and meditation thing. I saw your colors change after grandpa exorcised that half-demon and I saw it again when Renee entered the infirmary. Most people stay fairly constant in their base colors. There are some shifts with major emotions. However, with yours the base has been changing and growing dimmer for no apparent reason. There's a lot of black too. You feeling okay?"

  "Yeah, I feel fine. Any idea what it means?"

  "I don't know, but I get a worried feeling. I just wish there was someone who could explain this to me."

  "You'll figure it out I'm sure and I'll help if I can. From what you have been saying it is getting easier...so there isn't any reason to think you won't get better at it as you do that meditation stuff."

  "Maybe." She said.

  "Well, here is my explanation. All matter vibrates, even at absolute zero. Maybe there is something in your brain that allows you to see those vibrations? Or maybe, since mass and energy are two faces of
the same coin connected by their relationship with the speed of light..."

  "I don't know about that stuff. But..." She looked towards a glass of water that Callen had sitting on his desk. She made some funny faces and then sighed. "I guess there isn't a better way to explain it. So, here it goes. As I got better at seeing colors, I started seeing elementals, like the catgirl character I made in my comic does."

  "Wait, elementals?"

  She nodded, sighed and looked down at the floor. "Yeah, I know it's not scientifically accurate, but I don't know a better word. I started seeing them more often too as I meditated more."

  "More often?" Callen asked.

  "Yeah, I thought I saw something in the bathtub one day when you were in the hospital. It looked like a face of a girl in the water, then it disappeared before I could really focus on it. I also would see them out of the corner of my eye. When I started being able to see the colors, I also started seeing more like the girl in the water, little mudmen in the dirt, fiery dragons in candles and wispy women in the air."

  "I guess that's where you got the idea from for the character?"

  She nodded.

  "I guess I don't really know what to say about all of this."

  "The undines, all my reading about curses and other magic, and the colors together helped me figure out what was wrong with Renee."

  "I guess you have been busy," Callen said. "Is there anything else?"

  "You have been busy too learning all your science and technology stuff."

  He nodded.

  She looked down at the floor again. "Well, do you think I'm evil?" She asked.

  "Ah, no...I already said that. Why would that change in the last few minutes?"

  "All the church and knight stuff says magic is evil. Elemental spirits are magic apparently." Her expression told he that she was dead serious and very unnerved. "That's why I'm having a problem making holy water, doing it the Church's way does make it bright with God's power, but it kills the undines...I don't know how undines could be evil. Do you think they're evil?"

  Callen shrugged. "Since when do I flat out believe religious propaganda, without a shred of proof?" Callen asked. "I think you know me better than that." He smiled. "And as for the holy water, you'll figure it out."

  "Your colors changed a little." She smiled. "Thanks for believing me."

  "How could I not?"

  "Well, you started to doubt me...and I thought you were going to suggest I had a brain tumor..."

  "Yeah, I thought that, but I didn't say it. Well, what did you expect...as you would say I am all sciency..."

  "I had Dr. Brewer do a scan a week ago because my migraines changed. Everything came back normal. So, I covered that." She smiled. "But, I don't want to tell anyone else."

  "What about Sadie and Tende?"

  "I'm not sure yet. But, until I decide, please don't tell anyone. The last thing we need is someone investigating me."

  Callen nodded. "My lips are sealed."