Talent

  Chapter 11

  Keterlyn saw Violet leave, though Daniel had not. She even sighed in relief as it signaled the end of the very long night, and though it was only midnight, Keterlyn felt as though it were near dawn.

  The group now mostly lay in the grass, looking up at the stars as Keterlyn kept the leaves glinting to give out a low glow for them to see by. The full moon was now waning and the light it gave was welcome by Keterlyn, but not still enough to see by clearly.

  Keterlyn stood resting against the tree as she perused the group, so full of life, so full of excitement after the day’s activities. They had intently recorded all the information on spell casting and invoking from the last session, but she had felt a true sense of pride watching them train today. When she noticed Daniel was coming over to join them, Keterlyn sank her full weight in to the tree, tuning out of the chit chat to listen for Daniel’s approaching footsteps as she stared at a patch of grass n front of her. She felt like a silly child, so off-course like this. And worse, she knew he knew she was weaker than she would like when it came to him.

  “I felt like a renaissance soldier or something.” joked Tempest.

  “Keterlyn prefers the Medieval times when it comes to fighting styles.” Daniel offered up. Keterlyn smiled in response to recalling him in the midst of battle/getting his ass handed to him at the Medieval Fayre.

  "You know I'm studying art in the early renascence era." Anise said as she leaned back on her arms.

  "What was it like?" Ashleigh asked of Keterlyn, starry eyed. "Was it as romantic as they make out in the movies, was it amazing?"

  "It was probably full of disease and death and oppression. This was the time before penicillin and the vote you know." Molly said tersely.

  Keterlyn finally sat down, back against the great tree. "Like now, there were good points and bad points in every time, in every city."

  "That's a diplomatic answer." Tempest commented.

  "It's an honest answer. I think I have been just about everywhere over the years and it's usually the same- amazing people, full of love, ideas and inspiration, and horrible people who are greedy, full of pain and war mongerers."

  "War seems to be always the status quo." Jake spoke up.

  "Oh here we go, he speaks!" Abel sneered at Jake.

  "Hey why are you so ready to jump on everybody all the time Abel?" Rebecca asked, accusation rife in her own voice.

  "I'm not." Abel countered appearing legitimately surprised and hurt.

  "Are to." Rebecca insisted.

  Zara rolled her eyes. "This is going places." She turned back to Jake. "What did you mean Jake?"

  "Well, when has there ever been a time of peace, where people weren't fighting over land or money, or something. It's like people can't just live and let live."

  "Fighting over resources, I can understand, it’s wired into us for survival." Will noted. "Its the fighting for the sake of it, for causing pain that I can't get my head around."

  "It is an odd sensation learning to battle to the death like this." Rebecca added.

  Quietly at first Lily, chimed in before lifting her head and blocking off her body by crossing her arms over her knees. "I almost can't remember anything else. Sometimes every day seems like a fight."

  "After we spent all day learning to fight. Can we talk about something else?" Micala asked begrudgingly.

  "What else is there?" Anise reasoned. "This is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me, to us."

  "It does feel like we can do anything together." Will agreed.

  "Hmm." with heavy undertones, Keterlyn gave them a stern look.

  "Seriously what can we not do?" Tempest said.

  "There are still limits Tempe." Zara offered. "It is remarkable, but remember we can only use what is around us. I think Keterlyn has cautioned us well as to not get carried away. It's a sharp drop down to reality once you start thinking you are invincible."

  Keterlyn picked up from there. "Energy exists around us, wind, water, matter, electricity."

  "Fire." Lily said absent mindedly.

  "Yes, fire you pyromaniac." laughed Keterlyn. “My point is, these things are easy to manipulate, it's the subtle things we need to work on next, like using herbs and crystals in spell casting. Though some of you already have -Will. I heard about what you did in class."

  Will suddenly sat up straight. "He had it coming?" the answer was a half question in the hopes it might fly, but Will knew there was nothing to it.

  "Yeah right." Molly objected.

  "You laughed." Will defensively rebutted.

  Daniel was as curious as the others about the rules, the tricks, the background to everything that had been happening. The feelings of power made him feel like he could fly if he wanted to, or as though he could command the ground to open up at a click of his fingers. It was both empowering and confronting and Daniel knew not to take this lightly, but at the same time he was tempted to let it engulf him. So he pressed for more information. "What happened with some of your other covens?"

  "Are we better than them?" Tempest smugly added.

  Keterlyn gladly answered Tempest so she didn’t have to look at Daniel. "Depends which one you're talking about. There's been ones that lasted weeks, others that lasted decades, but it always starts the same..."

  "Weeks? Why weeks?" Molly asked of Keterlyn.

  "Sometimes things go wrong." There was an uncomfortable silence. "Don't worry, don't do anything silly and we will be fine." Keterlyn had meant it as a joke, but there were no amused faces.

  "Has anyone ever died?" Anise asked.

  Keterlyn deflected. "We all die." Stating the obvious hadn't worked to redirect the conversation though.

  "After the circle is broken?" Anise pressed.

  "Sometimes before." Keterlyn answered honestly.

  "But you live forever?" Tempest seemed conflicted as he asked this. It was the first time he thought of Keterlyn as being anything other than what they were - human.

  "I give you part of what I can summon," Keterlyn tried to explain, "But it always has to come back. I pretty much already died remember. I might look like you, but I'm not quite like you."

  "You must have lost so many friends." Lily said sadly. Keterlyn didn't know how to answer. Yes, she had. It hadn't hurt at first, the people had just been a way to survive. After a time as the panic had started to subside as she became more sure she was free, that the plan to escape had indeed worked, Keterlyn had let herself form relationships and become attached. That had really cut deep, to watch her friends grow old, grow weak, and then surrender them to being unprotected when she broke the circle. Keterlyn had known from the outset, that once the she left her coven, the members only had the skills they had learned in their time with her and any naturally existing power they had possessed. That was often not enough to protect them from the things Lormorian would send after them. If he found them.

  Keterlyn reasoned that maybe some of them were strong enough to shield themselves from being found. The first group hadn't been. She had seen what happened to them after the bond between them was severed. The torture and anguish. So eventually she had set out to try and teach them how to make the most of what they had when she left them. Still, only one had survived. It had hurt deeply.

  For all that torment, Keterlyn had decided to cut off emotionally from those she bound herself to, but still, there were moments over the centuries like this one when she caught herself gazing at Lily's laughing face, or Tempest’s peaceable features, and even Anise's infectious enthusiasm that she felt it again. Affection.

  Keterlyn turned her face away, fighting a rising panic. Violet might be an advocate for friendships, for relationships, but she surrounded herself with the immortal, so didn't truly grasp what happened when things went wrong. Or at least that was what Keterlyn told herself. Looking back at the group, she caught Daniel's eyes piercing through her. She felt as though she were caught out. It had been the same with Violet- that feeling of bein
g completely seen through.

  Of everyone, Keterlyn was glad that at least Daniel had a chance of surviving after the circle broke. It was rare for her to feel strong natural talents for the supernatural like this, but in him she did. Over the years he could be able to command a vast array of skills if he put his mind to it, almost anything he desired he could master, as long as it didn’t go to his head.

  "Couldn't you just bring them back? The people you lost?" Abel was trying to make sense of the limits of what was on offer for them to tap into. At the same time, he was fighting the gut churning thought of what it must be like for her to see the worlds flow past, one era into another. The sense of loneliness while surrounded by others was not lost on him.

  "Resurrection?" Molly replied aghast.

  "We can't do that." Keterlyn was firm. She had seen the resurrected, the remortalised. It was differed to catching someone on the cusp of death. It was ugly, bone chilling, and something she would never do again. They would never come back right.

  "Really cause there were times I feel invincible." Abel almost challenged. Keterlyn wasn’t sure if she should tell them or not. She paused in her thoughts.

  Daniel jumped at her hesitation. "What happened? When you tried it?” Daniel asked.

  Damn. He can see through me. Keterlyn thought. "Nothing good." After an expectant pause from everyone, she decided to tell them, "I accidentally hurt someone."

  "That can happen." Daniel piped up.

  "I torched him. To a crisp!" Keterlyn paused for effect.

  "Yeah, that doesn't happen too often I guess." Anise countered.

  "I don't like to think about it. He was so young. I torched him when we were training. I just got carried away, and then he was gone. The rest of the coven started to become unstable, but I thought I could maybe fix it, if I could fix him…but it didn’t work.” Keterlyn didn’t share she had had to cut his heart out and decapitate him to stop him, that it had spread a sickness amongst the others. Instead, she offered a practical statement that was meant to be a reality check for them all – and a reminder for her. "When it comes to it. This will finish, sooner or later, it will finish, and we will be done, and I will be gone."

  "That isn't true. You care." Lily objected.

  "Don't mistake it for something it isn't." Keterlyn almost whispered, because it hurt to say it.

  Micala was the only one who didn’t look hurt, surprised or thoughtful. She stared ahead. “Understood.” was all she put in.

  Keterlyn shook off the uncomfortableness of the moment. "We had better get going. It's been a long night already."

  As everyone groaned as they stood and stretched, and as Keterlyn brushed the leaves from her clothes Abel came up, a hither to unseen seriousness cast over him. "I'm sorry I said what you did was pitiful. I was wrong. I would be doing exactly the same thing if I was you." He left then, and she stared after him as he joined the others slowly leaving the grounds and headed for their cars. No one had ever said they had understood before. As she returned from her thoughts, and started to think how comfortable her bed was going to feel, she realized Daniel was still standing there, patiently waiting behind her. She turned, ready to stand her emotional ground.

  Daniel however, was newly driven. Talking with Violet and listening to Keterlyn speak with the others, he realized she was more driven from fear than anything. He realized more so, she must have a sense of utter loneliness following her around for all these centuries, so he was out to set her straight. Living forever on a just-in-case basis was not something anyone should have to carry, and he suspected she had grown so used to it, she did not, or could not think outside the box.

  “I'm not some boy you flambéed. You know that. I can hold my own.” Daniel challenged her.

  Keterlyn surprised him by her answer. “I know.” She simply acknowledged as she began walking away towards the road.

  “Good. Cause I'm your best student.” he called after her.

  “Sure you are.” she called back.

  “I’m not joking!” Daniel was unsure if she had just said that to put him off, or was serious, so he ran after her. “Come have a drink with me, or teach me something new, something I can really get my teeth into.” he insisted.

  “Learn will you child. Not now, not ever.” With that Keterlyn strode ahead leaving him behind.

  Abel and Will both made ‘ouch’ faces, and Daniel sighed. One last trick play he thought quietly.