Circle of Reign (62 page)

“All emotions have a scent,” she announced. “This is how Helsyans track.”

“Yes,” Jayden confirmed.

“But only when Charged.”

“Not quite. They can always smell the emotion. The Charge allows them to hunt it, unleashing the predator the Dark forged them to be.”

But, if you can capture the emotions before they take hold of you, you can counter the Helsyan’s advantage. Remember, all emotions are friction and create energy. Redirecting that power will aid you greatly
.

Reign understood finally why she was still alive.

“After I saw you die,” Reign said, “I felt nothing. There was no emotion. Not right then and not for several days. I just sat there, breathing.” She hesitated. “Then came the anger. The hate, blame.”

“It saved your life,” Jayden admitted. “You changed inside that day. It was enough that when you did start to return to a normal
emotional state, your emotional
scent
was different. The Helsyan would not have been able to identify you by that alone.”

But
, Thannuel interjected,
that will be different now. The chase-giver will undoubtedly sense you again, your scent. It is inevitable. You have emotionally returned to whom you once were
.

Jayden nodded. “More or less.”

Reign did not answer. She felt the truth of her father’s warning. The chill in the air added to her growing anxiety. Jayden saw the concern on her face.

“That, right there,” the old woman said. “Hold that emotion, that fear.”

“That’s not hard,” Reign said, looking down. “I can’t help but feel it when thinking of him.” Thannuel sent forth reassurance through her.

“That is exactly the point, child. You cannot help the emotions you feel, but they are
yours
. You can control them, command them. All emotion is friction. Some emotions produce a greater level of energy but they all produce some. Capture the friction and recycle its energy. Direct it.”

“How?” she asked, but then she knew. Her father showed her his experience in the form of a memory. Because it felt as if it were her memory, it felt familiar once again. Instead of trying to truncate or overcome the emotion—fear in this case—she let it completely engulf her. The fear peaked and she began to shake as if in mortal terror.

Good
, Thannuel encouraged.
Let it build
.

Reign’s whole frame shook almost uncontrollably.

Now!
her father said.

“I can’t grab it! It’s too large!” Her voice trembled. Thannuel reached out and added his strength and serenity. Inside herself, Reign felt as if she were expanding and being lifted, though she physically did not change. And then, within herself, she could
see
the fear. All of it. The ancient word came.

“Relitha!”
she commanded out loud. Immediately, the emotion that had been swelling within her ceased. It waited, contained. She could sense it waiting. Waiting for…

Strength
, she said inside. The vision of the fear she saw morph to something new within her and felt power begin to unfold itself within her limbs and joints. She knelt down on one knee, closed her eyes and tensed. The ground seemed to give way slightly and she readied herself.

Reign launched. The air around her rushed with wild noise as she shot upward. Her momentum slowed as she reached roughly fifty feet in the air. The amazement of what she had just done was exhilarating. She shot herself down with the last bit of energy and landed on the earth the way she had begun her jump, on one knee.

“That was…incredible!” she exclaimed, looking up at Jayden. Reign felt her father’s own amazement.
I could never have contained an emotion that swelled that large inside me. I’ve been humbled by my young daughter!

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Jayden replied. “Now see if you can redirect some of that friction for something useful.”

“But I don’t feel afraid anymore.”

“What do you feel?”

“Excitement!” Reign exclaimed.

“And? Is that not an emotion?” Jayden asked.

“Oh, right.”

It still took some time and effort, but Reign eventually channeled the excitement into increased sensory perception and reconnected with the Triarch in front of her. After a few moments, she pulled back with grave concern.

“It has happened again,” she said. “What I saw when I was young. More this time, though. A large portion of the forest has been killed. It is cold, petrified.”

Death, decay, entropy. These are all consequences of the Ancient Dark. It is what she seeks for all things. The Senthary have discovered an Influence that accelerates and focuses her power
.

“But,” Jayden interrupted, “it can be overcome. The Light renews life, brings lands back to life hundreds of years after they have died. It appears to be a natural cycle of life, but it is deeper than this. It is the struggle between two opposing forces: one to
create and extend life; the other to bring decadence and ruin. We are the determining factor as to which has greater hold. If the Dark’s Influence can be accelerated, so can the Light’s. The Dark cannot ever fully extinguish the spark of life, only dim it. This is why the lands cycle back to life eventually after their seeming demise.”

“How can it be overcome?” Reign asked. “I don’t understand that.” She sensed that neither did Thannuel.

“The Lumenatis promotes life. It sparks the fire of existence.” Jayden said no more, as if that explained everything. From off her shoulder she removed something a little less than four feet in length and wrapped in furs. As she revealed the item, she said, “For now, though, it’s time for practice.”

Inside the fur wrappings was a sword. The blade was dark, almost pewter color. Jayden lifted it with two hands and extended it to Reign. Crimson Snow began to pounce back and forth playfully, turning in circles and barking. As Reign timidly reached out for the weapon, she felt her father’s excitement grow. Her eyes widened at the enthusiasm he felt. Having never truly held a sword, the hunger inside her was strange, but she
yearned
for it. As her hand grasped the hilt, she smiled and looked at Crimson Snow. She repeated Thannuel’s words that she heard in her mind.

“Think you can still catch me, Elohk, my old friend?”

The wolf huffed and took off through the woods at a sprint. Reign, sword in hand, was not even a pace behind.

And now we begin!
Thannuel said.

Reign thrust the sword into the ground and leaned against a mound in frustration.

“Why can’t I do it?” she asked, exasperated. “I know
how
but my body won’t listen!”

Crimson Snow was still full of energy after their hours of sprinting through the forest, dodging and sparring with each other. He nudged at Reign’s hip, trying to goad her into continuing.

“No!” she said.

Crimson barked at her.

Elohk doesn’t think you should quit so quickly
, her father admonished.

“It’s been half a span of hours! My arms and legs are shaking and won’t move like I tell them to. In my mind, I see the actions and myself carrying them out, but my body is reacting like a clumsy oaf!”

Reign could feel her father thinking of a response. It was an odd sensation.

Your mind knows how to fight with steel because it can draw on my knowledge and skills. But your muscles and joints still have to execute the movements, and they are new to you. You haven’t developed the muscle memory or flexibility yet. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time it will take for you to physically train yourself properly. We must continue, daughter
.

“Why me? Why did you choose me? Why not Hedron? Why not Aiden? Both seem like better choices.”

A last breath can only be passed to a blood relative of close relation. At least, that’s what we believe. Children, siblings, parents. Maybe a first cousin or grandchild, but that might prove unsuccessful
.

“Not even a spouse,” Reign added, accessing her father’s knowledge.

Correct. Only a blood relation. And you were there, my little one. You saw what happened and had first-hand knowledge, though I know you did not understand at the time. My last breath passing to you would provide the best advantage
.

“Why didn’t it happen sooner? I mean, why didn’t I get this sooner? Your last breath?”

I tried relentlessly but could not get through to you. You felt my attempts, but did not understand them. Love is the conduit. That must exist for the last breath to successfully pass to the intended recipient
.

Reign felt a pang of guilt well up inside her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just…I didn’t know how to—”

I know. I don’t blame you. Your anger was equal to the guilt I felt for not surviving. But, the anger and hate shielded you
.

Her mind conjured up memories of the old man with a scar on his cheek who visited her after her father died.

I know your life has not been easy because of this. But, Reign, I love you and your brother more than I can express
.

She felt the warmth inside her again as her father expressed his feelings.

Your brother protected you well. He did what needed to be done. You would have been in grave danger if anyone had known you still lived, as well as those you love. High Duke Wellyn would have sent him or others for you
.

The Helsyan
, Reign thought.

Yes
.

“And yet, the danger existed just the same. Hedron’s silence did not protect mother and she died because of me. And Hedron nearly so.”

Your mother died
for
you, not because of you. She waits for us with the Lumenatis where all that possessed Light during life return when their time on Våleira ends
.

“Does she remember us? Does she still…love us?”

Don’t you remember and love her?

“Yes.”

We do not lose ourselves when we die, little one. Who we are remains
.

“That’s not what the Changrual—”

Fools!

Reign was taken aback by her father’s sudden outburst. “But I thought—”

I’m sorry, Reign. There are many good people in the Changrual Order. However, their understanding of the greater knowledge is far from correct. I suppose “ignorant fools” is more apt
.

Reign chuckled. With what little she had learned in the past day, she knew her father’s words to be true.

Now, let’s recycle some of that frustration friction you were feeling into more flexibility and stamina and continue
.

“Not now, I’m too tired.”

Reign, time is slim. We must press on
.

“I’m just tired. Can that be recycled?”

No, unfortunately. That’s not an emotion but rather a state. You must find the energy to continue. You can create more by conjuring emotions that are genuine
.

“There is not much I can really do. I mean, these abilities are beyond my imagination, but I don’t really know what I’m doing. You realize I’m only a fifteen-year-old girl, right, father?”

We are all more than we appear. Most never understand or even realize this truth. We are all either agents of the Living Light or the Ancient Dark. There can be no middle ground
.

“Does middle ground have a bed?”

Reign felt Thannuel’s frustration growing at her flippancy.

“Well, then, I’m going to rest for a little while.” Reign felt like she was about to be sent to her room like had happened many times when she was younger.

Not an option
, Thannuel said sternly.
We’re going to continue
—

“Jayden said I can control the access, if I remember right.”

Reign
—

With that, she shut the mental door on her father, leaving him sequestered in a deep recess of her mind. She felt his agitation but ignored it, knowing he could not communicate with her unless she let him. He would probably let her know later how he felt about this little stunt, but for now she would rest.

“He’s like a slave driver sometimes, you know?” she said, looking at the large white wolf. Crimson Snow turned away and huffed.

“What, now you’re mad at me, too?”

The wolf replied by lying down on the ground. A breeze came through and he closed his eyes.

The vibrations that came through the forest were strange. They were more pronounced and numerous than she would have thought normal here in northern Arlethia. Whatever produced them was not very close, and they were too muddled to be discerned properly. They almost felt like a massive herd of large animals, like buffalo or elephants, but those creatures lived only in the plains of the Eastern Province. The vector felt directly east of
her. The curiosity inside her beckoned her to get up, but she was so weary that her legs ached just from the thought of standing up. She did anyway.

Taking a portion of the intrigue she felt, Reign recycled it into enough energy to scale a tall grouping of white pines, a species more common in the Northern Province. Atop the trees, she scanned east and saw what appeared to be a cloud until she focused with the clarity of wood-dweller eyes. Thousands of the winged animals with riders saddled on their backs flew southbound in formation. Though she did not witness the battle at Jayden’s cottage, being so wrapped up in terror as she related the past events she had witnessed to the old wolf shepherd, surely these were what Aiden and the wolves faced. She knew, however, these were not the source of the vibrations she felt. Without being closer she could not see the ground level from her vantage point, but she guessed the numbers there to be many times greater than what she saw in the air. She thought of Hedron and Aiden and prayed they were far from this horde she saw before her. Regardless, she knew her brother was in harm’s way and had less than a day before the Borathein would be deep into Arlethia. As best as she could see, the invaders were headed in the general direction of Calyn.

Crimson Snow whined and barked below her.

“I know!” she called. Sighing, she allowed her father out into her mind again.