Selindria awoke in the bedroom she had stayed in at the cottage and stared out the window at the foot of her bed where dawn was just beginning to stain the Eastern horizon. What will today bring? she thought ruefully as she recalled the previous day's adventure. She felt her cheeks redden slightly as she recalled the fool that she had made of herself. I must have looked like a complete idiot, she thought with a shake of her head. Not that I care what he thinks of me.
Rising out of bed, she went over to the washstand and splashed some water over her face. She stared into her own cat-like eyes, wondering what Kallath would think if he knew the truth. He thought that she was just a Serran, that her eyes marked her as one for true. What he does not know will not bother him. That was what she always told students when they started asking her why her eyes were abnormal.
Drying her face with a towel, Selindria looked at her reflection in the mirror. Picking up her brush, she began stroking her waist-length hair in long, even strokes. She noticed there was a large wardrobe next to the door that had not been there when she went to sleep. Rising slowly, she moved over to the wardrobe and explored the contents. Her eyes went immediately to the white skirt with a tight-fitting white blouse.
When she first arrived at Avenry, the Elders had tried to talk her out of wearing her tight-fitting blouses that accentuated her large breasts. They tried to convince her that it was unseemly. The memory of the Elder's faces when she asked them how she was supposed to fight in a loose blouse that allowed her breasts to bounce around every time she moved still brought a smile to her face.
She pulled the white skirt and blouse from the wardrobe and dressed quickly, examining herself in the mirror when she was done. For the last century, she had worn nothing but unrelieved black, mourning the sister she had lost. She almost didn't recognize herself in the bright color, which contrasted nicely with her midnight-black hair. Slipping her feet into the soft brown sandals next to the door, she walked out into the common room.
Michael was already up, sitting in a chair next to Josh and talking animatedly. Josh had a faintly amused expression on a face that just missed being handsome. His broad chin always seemed to be stabbing at you as he emphasized his arguments with sharp nods. The two of them stood up as she walked into the room, staring at her with their mouths hanging open.
"Good morning, gentlemen," she greeted them with a smile. "How did you sleep?"
She had to repeat the question before they finally gave themselves a shake. They assured her that they slept wonderfully, better than they ever had before. That certainly did not surprise her. As soon as they had crossed over the boundary to wherever this place was, she could sense the web that Kallath had spun around this place, bringing a sense of well-being and happiness to those receptive to it. Selindria was immune to such manipulations, an inheritance from her father's side. Had she been human, she would not even have been able to detect the layers of the cocoon that Kallath wrapped around this place. She had to admit that he was really quite good.
"Where's our host?" she inquired, looking around the kitchen. "Or rather, shall I say hosts?"
"We haven't seen either of them yet," Michael answered as he ran his fingers through his dark hair, the way he did when he was anxious about something.
"Well, I suppose I'll start making breakfast, since the two of you are so busy," she noted pointedly, walking into the kitchen. She looked around in puzzlement for the necessary utensils. She had moved the dishes onto the counter with Kallath after dinner the previous night, but they were nowhere to be found. The cupboards were full of canisters labeled in an alien script that she didn't recognize. Opening the lid on one of them, she peered at the contents, which was a dark orange powder. Replacing it and opening up another one revealed a yellow powder. She sniffed at it and smelled nothing. She put the canister back in the cupboard and walked back into the sitting room.
"Never mind about breakfast," she muttered in annoyance. "Our glorious hosts seem to live off colored sand."
Michael and Josh nodded their agreement, and Selindria realized that they had already attempted to make breakfast. So much for a better start today, she thought ruefully. "Have either of you been outside yet?" she asked, more to change the subject than out of any real curiosity.
"I went for a walk earlier," Michael replied, looking uncomfortable.
"What's the matter?" Selindria asked curiously.
Michael ran his hand through his hair again. "Every time I walked further than a quarter mile, I ended up walking into this clearing again. It doesn't seem to make a difference which direction I go, I always end up walking down the path that leads to the front door."
Selindria just nodded calmly. She could see the layers that made up their cocoon even in the cottage. Distance was relative in this place. For instance, she knew that from the outside, this cottage looked big enough to house one person, but on the inside, it was large enough to house a family.
"Do you know why we were brought here, Selindria?" Michael asked intently. She had never noticed how sharp his eyes were before.
"I am not entirely sure," she admitted as she sat down across from them. "If I had to guess, I'd say he wants to teach you something. Remember, he is the one that formed the Delphite Order. He may have it in his head to do something similar now that the planet is healing."
She didn't tell him the other reason, which she had learned as soon as she saw him next to Kallath. If Kallath wanted him to know, then he could tell him.
"Do you mean how to use aeri-astra?" Michael asked eagerly.
Selindria's biggest surprise was to find out that Michael could tap into the planet's limitless reserves of power. It explained a lot of the phenomena that had occurred around him as he grew up. It also made her feel like she had been walking on a false floor covering a spike pit.
Nodding slowly, Selindria answered, "As far as I know, there is no one else alive today that can teach you." No one that I would trust to teach him, anyway.
Selindria turned her gaze to Josh. "Tell me how you came to meet Kallath," she commanded, her eyes catching the light as she focused on him.
Josh shrugged. "I was just watching my post when he walked up and told me that he needed to teach me. As soon as he entered the border, I knew who it was because of the bond. He told me not to mention it to anyone, though."
Selindria tsked in annoyance. Not knowing about the bond Kallath claimed existed irked her more than she wanted to admit.
It was past time to prepare for contingencies that might arise should Kallath do something foolish. One of the few things her father had taught her was to never put your trust or safety in another person's hands.
Arising from her chair, she moved it to where the other two were sitting so that she was within touching distance of them. They watched her somewhat apprehensively, leaning back in their chairs in spite of themselves.
"I think that it is time to prepare the two of you for life outside of Avenry," she said firmly. "The world you are about to enter is so vastly different from anything you have experienced that you will trip yourselves up at the first stranger you meet." She held their gazes, making sure she had their full attention before moving on.
Josh cleared his throat, "How do you know what it's like outside of Avenry?" he asked curiously.
Selindria sat silently in thought for a moment before answering. After a moment, she sighed quietly. "I suppose that you'll find out soon enough when we get back to civilization," she muttered under her breath. Leaning back into her chair, she watched them closely to see what their reaction would be.
"I was not born in Avenry," she said finally. "I lived the first half-century of my life on the Mordanan continent." They did not need to know there was even more time between the fifty years she spent on Mordana and her arrival at the school.
The two of them were gaping at her as if she had just told them she was a Swamp Dragon in disguise. Not that they even believe Swamp Dragons exist, she thought wryly. She had been teaching at the school for just over a hundred years, something that all the students were aware of because she had taught their parents and parents' parents. They thought her proximity to the Altered Gardens had affected her life span and accounted for her odd eyes, a belief she had strongly encouraged.
Michael finally found his voice. "That's impossible!" he protested, and Josh nodded his agreement. "No outsiders are allowed to enter Avenry."
"Yes, that is the standard practice," Selindria replied dryly, "but there have been more than one exceptions over the last three thousand years." She stared pointedly at Michael.
Michael's jaw dropped. "Me? How can you say that? You know both of my parents."
As much as Michael protested it, she could see that the thought had occurred to him at least once since they had left Avenry.
"I know Cedric and Sherryl," Selindria agreed, "but they are no more your real parents than I am. The same is true for Shalay. When I look at your aeri, I see a completely different resonance than that of Cedric or Sherryl."
Selindria remembered when Sherryl had announced that she was going to have a baby. Selindria had thought she was coming down sick. After an unusual nine-month seclusion from everyone but her husband, she had appeared with Michael and Shalay. Thalian's mother had a similar experience with her two children. The Elders had told her firmly to mind her own business when she had voiced her concern over the incidents.
Josh looked at Michael as if seeing him for the first time. Selindria could tell he was examining Michael's aeri by the way he was studying him. Michael shifted uncomfortably. Selindria knew he could feel it when other people reached out with their aeri, even if he could not sense anything with his own. Josh's eyes widened with recognition as he realized the similarities that Selindria had noticed earlier. She shot him a warning look, not wanting Michael to find out from someone else.
"The point is," she continued, gazing at Michael with a meaningful look, "there are people living in Avenry that were not born there. Why the Elders allow it, I do not know." Shaking her head slowly, she muttered, "Then again, who said they ever needed a reason for what they do?"
The other two stared at her expectantly. I suppose there is nothing for it but to press on, she thought with an inward sigh. "Let me put the figures out on the table for you." She held up her hand and began ticking items off on her fingers. "First, the Elders do have contact with the outside world that goes beyond our knowledge." She ticked another finger. "Second, a man claiming to be Kallath shows up who has a bond to all of the people who were raised in Avenry. Third, we know that Kallath was the leader of an order that brought about the cataclysmic events that wounded the planet several thousand years ago. Fourth," she leaned forward as she raised her last digit, "he came back to a city he engineered and took one of the inhabitants." She leaned back in her chair and let her small outline sink in.
Selindria looked at each of them in turn. "We really do not know who this man is or what his intentions are. Even if they are benevolent, there could be a catastrophe as bad as the last one before he's done. Do not become too trusting of this Kallath," she warned in a soft voice. "Use your own mind to work things out and question everything. You are both exceptionally brilliant. Remember that you rule your mind, not the other way around."
Michael stared reflectively into the distance as he rubbed his chin with his knuckles. Josh looked troubled and Selindria began to wonder if she should have said so much this early with Josh present. What's done is done, she thought with an imperceptible shrug of her slender shoulders.
* * *
Several hundred miles off the west coast of the Mordanan continent, a merchant ship cut through the waves at full sail as the wind pushed them steadily west. Inside the main cabin, a man sat at a simple table bolted to the floor. He tapped a small round object that looked like a river stone against the tabletop. His full lips were pursed in thought and blue eyes shown with an intelligence that failed to mask the madness. He was clean-shaven with dark black hair cut short around his neck. He wore red trousers with a white linen shirt tucked in, and enough lace for a lord covered his wrists and collar. His velvet slippers lay next to the small bed that was also bolted down, next to his blood-red coat. Branded into his forehead was the scarred depiction of a six-pointed star inside of a triangle where the points met the inside points of the triangle. The symbol was branded onto his hand as well.
It had been a long time since he had inhabited a body. He felt weak, like a piece of porcelain. Flesh was such a delicate substance, slave to so many masters. When he had first taken this body, he had vomited everything that the former inhabitant had eaten as disgusting smells assaulted his nostrils. The first to reach him was the stench of human hygiene and pollen from the budding trees outside. Even after a few months of wearing flesh, he preferred the dark and dank smell of the cabin to the fishy smell that was so strong above deck. Even the carnal lusts of the body held no interest to him. He had a vision of the way life was meant to be—the perfect life. From the time he discovered the purpose of life, he spent every moment designing a plan that would bring the world to heel and fulfill that vision.
He ran into diversions that he had been unaware of before, however. Though he had no interest in the pleasures of the flesh, he had discovered that he had an insatiable appetite for misery. The acts of cruelty did not seem wrong to him, any more than painting a picture with dark colors would seem wrong. The tapestry of existence could not exist without a fair amount of shading to accentuate the brighter colors. Jared considered himself the artist appointed to this task. Selindria would be the lead soprano in his next piece. He had nearly had her a century ago before Kallath neatly trapped him in a vacuum that he had only recently escaped. That Selindria did not know Kallath came to her rescue only served to make the trap awaiting them more certain.
White-hot fury erupted in his mind as he thought of Kallath. The man was responsible for every single failure he had experienced thus far. As smoke began to lift off the floorboards and table, Jared forced himself to calm down. Thinking of the plans he had for Kallath made him smile madly. A hundred years in a small prison had given him a lot of time to plan his retribution.
Jared stood up and exited the cabin, then made his way to the prow. The sailors flinched and cowered as he passed them on his way to the front of the ship.
"Captain, halt this tub of boards," he called without turning around. He could feel the soft spot in the planet's aeri just in front of them. Reaching out with his aeri, he studied the piece of land that lay submerged a half mile beneath the water. Digging deeper, he found a fault beneath the underwater mountain. He concentrated his aeri on the minutest particles within the fault. With a grunt, he triggered a chain reaction of splitting atoms that caused the fault to heave and shove the mountain up into the air and out of the water. A tsunami engulfed their ship and crushed it like a nut caught in a vice. All that remained of the merchant ship was a tall figure walking across the water to the new island that had risen out of the ocean.