Reaching Retribution (The Prophesized Series) (18 page)

Well, Ryanne left out a lot of details.
“I still say we go. Ryanne seemed shocked when I told her how many people we have. We have more of a chance than we thought.”

“Liam thinks that we’ll still need more people.”

“Then, we’ll find more,” I say.

“It’ll take more than two days to gather up more mages, Colton.”

“I can’t leave her there any longer than that. You all know her. She doesn’t like others to think of her as weak, so she won’t give them a reason to believe so. Liam knows what’s going on in that mind of hers. If he thinks that she’s depressed, she most likely is. Think about her powers. She can read minds. She can sense emotions. Can you image what being in Dravin’s compound is doing to her mentally? All that anger, hatred, and negative emotions. We can’t leave her there for much longer. Three more days tops. If we can’t get any more, we go in there with what we have. We’ll warn everyone of the dangers ahead of time, but we go anyway. I’ll go by myself if I have to. I
have
to try.”

“Ok
ay,” Tom says. He doesn’t try to talk me out of it or offer another strategy.

“Okay?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“We all love her too, Colton, and Liam’s part of our family as well. We miss them as much as you. I hadn’t thought about what being there would be like with her magic. Even if they’re not hurting her, it’ll still affect her just to be there. Three days. That’s all the time I’m allowing before we go there. I’ll go let everyone know.”

“Liam, will you tell me more about your mom?” I ask him as I play with the flamed pendant he gave me
a few months ago. “Or how you got that scar?”

“What do you want to know?” he asks me.

“What was she like? How’d it happen? Either story. Both stories. Whichever one you want to tell.” I angle myself more toward him, so I can watch him as he talks. That sounds weird, but I love watching him when he talks. Liam doesn’t show much emotion, but when he tells stories, he comes alive.

“She was amazing.
She was the type of person who went out of her way to make someone happy. She loved making jewelry. I don’t remember a day where she wasn’t making something. She loved molding something beautiful out of nothing. All the girls in our tribe would come and ask her to make something for them. They always offered to pay, but mom would never accept their money.” Liam smiles as he talks. He’s staring off into space, reliving the memories.

“Everyone would
come to her as ask her to repair their protector pendants. The mother’s of all the male mages were supposed to make their sons their own individual pendants, but many women would come to mom and ask her to make them. My mom had a way of knowing people without meeting them. She could look at you and instantly know what your symbol should be. It was uncanny.

“
When I was ten, she sat me down and told me the story of the flame. My great great great grandfather, Maitrec, was the historian for the tribe. He would keep the documentation of everything that occurred. The births. The deaths. The powers everyone had. Everything. He wrote it all down. Because of the time he lived in, he didn’t have electricity, so he wrote by candlelight. During the days, he’d watch over the tribe, observing everything. Mom said that he was all-seeing.

“
One day, a woman wondered into the tribe. We don’t know exactly what happened, but she didn’t know who she was. She didn’t know her name, her date of birth, where she was from. Nothing.

“She was scared.
The scrolls where her appearance is first documented say that she was a beautiful frightened woman with a fierceness never seen before in her eyes. Maitrec gave her food and a place to sleep. He was determined to find out what happened to her. He wanted to know why she couldn’t remember—what she couldn’t remember. He searched for years, but couldn’t find anything. It was like she just appeared out of thin air.

“
My grandfather took her in and taught her the ways of our tribe. During the days, when he used to watch the tribe, he started working on the scrolls. He had to write everything down. Our whole tribe history has been recorded because of him. From what I hear, Bragden looks a lot like him.

“
Anyway, when she arrived, Maitrec took to teaching her at night. Sitting by the candlelight, he would help her in any way that he could. She acclimated quickly. He gave her the name Rozene, which means rose. Like a rose, she was beautiful, but there was hardness underneath; she had her own set of thorns. The mystery of her past loomed in everyone’s heart. As everyone grew to love her, they wanted to help solve the mystery of her past. To this day, we still don’t know any information about her early life.

“
Rozene came into Maitrec’s life in the darkness. By the flame of a candle, she became a permanent part of his life. By the candlelight, he fell in love with her. Though it took some time, she grew to return his feelings. She was afraid of her past, but because of Maitrec’s kindness and patience, she slowly grew to love him as well. We’re not sure if Rozene was a mage. There’s no record of any magic use by her. Maitrec said that her presence was magical though. There was something special about her. They married and had one child, Abornazine, which means keeper of the flame. Since Maitrec and Rozene, the symbol for my family has been the flame.

“
During the darkest of times, her presence provided the illumination he was seeking. She brought something new to his life. Before her, he spent every day writing and documenting the tribes every detail. She broke his routine and made him live for something for the first time in a long time. She became a symbol for light. Even without knowing her past, she adjusted and thrived.

“
Before her, Maitrec’s flame was quickly dwindling. She brought his flickering flame to its intended brightness. The flickers left and all that remained was a strong flame burning bright. It remained bright until their deaths, but their flame will always burn bright. It’s written in our town’s history, where it will forever remain.

“
Eventually Abornazine got married and had a daughter, my grandma. At twenty, she had my mom. Kayleena. My mom was always a little different compared to everyone else. When we’re born, we’re given a specific job. The elders in my tribe are pretty good at determining what each person is meant to do with their life, but my mom was a surprise. They couldn’t place her in any one job, so for the first time, they let her choose. Her choice was to not choose. She wanted to try everything, and she did before she found her love for art. She loved making jewelry.

“She could literally make something beautiful out of nothing. She was stubborn
, determined, and fearless. She wasn’t afraid of trying something new even if it brought failure. With failure, you learn. She said that nothing could be considered a failure, because you learned one way not to do it. She was a glass half-full type of person. If you looked at something from a negative angle, she’d make you look in the opposite direction. She had a way of changing people for the better. However, the change was so subtle, that you didn’t even realize that she changed you at all until later. She was incredible. I was always amazed at how well she got along with everyone and I literally mean everyone.

“She was the epitome of a flame
and represented our family well. She brought brightness to everyone. She provided a constant illumination for those around her. Even those wallowing in the darkness were not immune to her flame.”

Liam stops talking and looks
toward me. I can see the sadness in his eyes. I lean into him and ask him to continue. “My mom met my dad, Axsher, when she was twenty. He was banished from his home tribe. She would never tell us why. In fact, I never even knew the guy. After I was born, he left. He didn’t leave any clues as to his whereabouts. I don’t think mom even knew why he left. One day, he just disappeared.

“Bragden knew him, but briefly. I don’t think he remembers anything
specific about him though. When I was six or seven, Pavander, asked Valdus to begin to work with me. He concluded that I would probably end up being a dream-walker like him. I don’t know how the elders were always able to determine what our mage powers would be, but they were usually correct. Occasionally, you’d hear of a story where they got it wrong, but those were rare.

“Bragden was another one of the mages that the elders weren’t sure about. They didn’t give him the option to choose like my mother though. Every day while I was training with Valdus, he was training too. He was building up his strength. That’s why he’s so big. Since they weren’t sure what his powers would be, they prepared him in other ways. Bragden became the best fighter in our tribe. People were afraid to oppo
se him. He was one of those people whom you always wanted to remain on their good side.

“After all of my dream sessions with Valdus, I would come home and my mom would have made multiple
pieces of jewelry and have dinner prepared and ready. I don’t know how she did it, but she did. Bragden would come in from his training sessions before me and would literally eat everything. Mom always made a side portion for me. I came home every night and found a small plate of food in the refrigerator.

“I remember being so jealous when
mom pulled Bragden aside and handed him his pendant. Growing up, that’s one of the moments you look forward to. Even though it happens when you’re ten, it’s one of the first steps to becoming a man. After you get your pendant, you get to start training. Bragden was already doing that. He was always one step ahead of me.

“
One of the other things about my mom was that she was great with animals. They flocked to her side. Our house always had random birds with broken wings or rabbits with injured feet. She would nurse them back to health, and then release them back into the wild. We also had two horses. She rode Ava, while Bragden and I rode Ranger.

“One day while I was working with Valdus and Bragden was training, mom decided that she wanted to go out riding. She used to ride almost every day when she was younger. When she had us, she had to give it up to take care of us. I came home that day after my dream sessions and found the house empty. Pieces of jewelry were thrown about the kitchen table, but dinner wasn’t prepared. Bragden was walking through the house looking for her. I came in right as he was heading out. Mom wasn’t home and neither one of us knew where she was.

“The first place we looked was the barn. We instantly knew that she was out when we saw Ava missing. Bragden and I went running down the trial that we knew she frequently rode on. We found her unconscious on the trail about a mile in. Ava was nowhere in sight. I rushed back into town and got Valdus. He was…I guess, he still is, our tribe leader. He told Bragden and me to go home while they worked on mom. Bragden and I went and stayed with our neighbor.

“The next morning we found out that
she was paralyzed from the waist down. There was nothing they could do about it. Our tribe didn’t have any healers at the time. Healers are incredibly rare. It’s a very coveted power. Bragden and I spent months after her accident helping her. Like you, she doesn’t like looking weak. She didn’t feel like her accident was a bad thing. She looked at it as a flicker in the flame or at least she did at first.

“It was then that she fully told me about the flame. She sat Bragden and me down one night in the kitchen and turned all the lights off.
She lit a single candle and told us to just watch the flame for a few moments.

“At the time, we thought she was crazy, but w
e listened. I watched as the candle flame danced around, casting shadows on Bragden’s and mom’s faces. The slight draft in the room caused the flame to flicker dramatically. A candle flame doesn’t stay still for long. There’s always some invisible force acting against it. After a few minutes, she started talking.

“She told us how before the accident, her flame was burning bright. It brightened with each of our births. She
had everything she wanted in life: two sons on their destined paths and a love for what she was doing with her life. The accident was just a flicker in the flame. It was just an obstacle that she had to overcome in order for the flame to burn bright again. ‘With each passing day, the flame will get brighter,’ she said. Being seven, I didn’t really understand the importance of what she was telling me.

“
It wasn’t until I was ten and got my pendant necklace that I started to think about everything she told me all those years ago. On my tenth birthday, Valdus gave me the day off and mom sat me down at the table and gave me a small box. I knew that my protector’s pendant was inside. I ripped open that box so fast. Inside was a long necklace with a simple flame pendant attached. It was perfect. When I put on the necklace, it felt like pins and needles were spreading throughout my body. I didn’t know what was happening. Mom started talking, trying to distract me from the slight pain. After a couple of seconds, the pain went away. It all exited my body and settled in the pendant. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but I knew from that day, everything was going to change. Nothing would be the same.”

Liam pauses and looks off to the far side of the room. He clears his throat before he turns
toward me again. I see the gloss in his gaze. He’s trying to hide his sadness. I squeeze his hand, telling him that I’m still here. I don’t know if Liam has ever told anyone this story before. I know how easy it is to get lost in a memory. He gives me a small smile and continues.

“Bragden and I would take turns helping mom. She would try to do everything she did before, but it was difficult. She couldn’t go upstairs. At this point, Bragden was thirteen. Though he was young, Bragden was already bigger than everyone else. He would carry
Mom upstairs every night and then back down every morning. I started preparing the meals. She would help me, but it wasn’t the same. I remember that every night Bragden would bring Mom into the living room and we’d all sit around the fire. I would sit across from her on the couch and read to her. I would read whatever she gave me for the night. Mom would always tell me that she loved hearing my voice. It didn’t matter what I was reading, as long as she could listen to me speak.