Cassiea

Chapter 7

  My whole body felt awful as if someone had used me as a punching bag. My stomach was nauseated and I had a migraine.

  “Ah, I see that you are awake.” Loquis said.

  “What happened?” I asked him as he helped me sit upright.

  “You do not remember?”

  “I remember being in Von's room. How did I end up here and why does my whole body feels like it was run over by a huge truck?”

  “That will happen when you bring someone back who is near death; at least, that is my guess.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Do you know why our healers were unable to heal him?” When I shook my head, he went on. “His injury was not caused by an ordinary knife wound. There was a spell on it that even a mere scratch from the knife was enough to kill a person. Von was dying from the stab wound and you gave him back his life.”

  “How did I do that?”

  “It is very hard to explain. In its most simplest terms, our body is an empty shell. What makes it function is the presences of a core, a soul and essence. The core is were your stored thoughts, feelings and ideas resides. It is your individuality. The soul is the energy that charges the body. And essence is the elixir of life. It maintains the body, keeps it functioning and holds the soul inside of you. All three can work as one. All three can work separately as independent entity. And all three can be combined into one. Von's essence was being absorbed by the poison from the spell cast on the knife. Without his essence, his body was unable to function and his core and soul could not stay within it. You replaced his essence with some of yours, but by doing so, you have limited your life span.”

  “I can do this? How is that possible?”

  “Our healers are able to do this as well, to transfer their essence to someone else when that person is close to death. But they have to be a level five and it will forfeit their life.”

  “You mean they will die from this? If that is the case, then why am I still here?”

  “Keya had consumed many magical powers form others. There was enough magic to keep you alive but not from taking some of your life span. Though it was surprising that you were able to heal him at all. My guess is your connection to your magic is growing quickly.” He was quiet for a moment in thought before saying, “It is strange though, that she sought to acquire more healing powers.”

  “Why would you say that?” I asked.

  “Her gift was the power to heal. Her level of magic was a two. There was more then enough to heal herself if she was hurt. And so, it is strange that she would acquired more, considering it requires a sacrifice of one's self to use it.”

  “What is wrong with getting more healing powers? And, what kind of sacrifice?”

  “Healing is a form of giving one's self to another. Most healers do not live long because it costs them each time they use their gift. If a level-five healer were to bring Von back as you did, it means forfeiting their life with no guarantees that Von would live. And so, it is strange she had acquired that many. Unless...”

  “Unless what?”

  “All talents have a negative and a positive. It all depends on how the person uses it. Healing may be used as a form of torture and death.”

  “Was it so important for her to be this strong?”

  “Once you get a taste of blood magic, it is hard to turn back.” Loquis got up from the chair and walked to the window. “The real Keya, before she was addicted to blood magic, was a very sweet-tempered person. It was after the death of her child that she changed.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “She always wanted a child. It is very hard for our people to conceive. When she was finally blessed with one, she was overjoyed. During that time, there was a feud that had been going on for centuries among our clans. None of us really remembered what had started it. Our clan was split in half and it was during one of our disputes that her child was killed. She blamed all of us for her child’s death. For several days afterward, she did not speak to anyone or eat anything. Then one day, she started to talk and she started to eat. We all thought she was getting better, until a few weeks later she disappeared. We were unable to find her.

  Years later we heard rumors of someone using blood magic to steal magic from others. As hard as we tried, we could not find the person who was responsible until later when she revealed herself to us. We were so busy fighting among ourselves that we did not see her rise to power. And because of her, we had joined together to fight her. Back then, there were six clans. All of us lost a lot of our people. The TezMir clans suffered the most. Their numbers were greatly reduced and their lord had already died during our clan war. There were so few of us left after our clan war. And our numbers decreased even more during the war with Keya.”

  “Did you or any of the visors have visions of her at all? Did any of you see future battles with her?”

  “All of us were too focused on our clan war to think or worry about other matters. When I and other visors became aware of her through our visions, it was too late. As I said, no one knew who was responsible for the killing of innocents for their magic. Our visions can easily be tampered with or be blocked from viewing if someone had enough power. Keya had accumulated a great deal of it and she knew how to hide herself well.

  Before she died, after I transferred her magic to the crystal, she told me that, in the beginning, all she wanted was to stop us from fighting each other. But now that she had a taste of the blood, all she wanted was to destroy us all. She begged me to end her life. She knew she would not stop if she was still alive. By then, whether I wanted to or not, she was already leaving this world.”

  “And what about her sister, Nara? What is her story?”

  “Their father was the lord of TezMir clan who died during our clan war. After the war with Keya, the rest of that clan broke off all contact with us. Nara left with them. We have not seen or found any trace of them or her since then until she appeared to us when she tried to take the crystal the first time. And then again, when I started to have visions of you.”

  “Do you think the TezMir clan is helping her?”

  “I do not know. We have sent a scout to find out if they or anyone else is helping her. But, I believe she is doing this on her own.” When he saw that I was getting sleepy he got up to go. “I will let you get some rest.”

  “Loquis,” I said and waited until he turned around before continuing, “Von is not dead. He will not die because of me.”

  He did not speak but nodded his head and left.