The Chosen (10 page)

“It’s going to be OK,” Seth tried to reassure the small teary-eyed woman he loved. “I have some news too, though I admit I don’t know how you will feel about it, and in retrospect I should have talked to you before I made my decision.” Seth’s eyes and voice pleaded for her understanding.

“What is it? Sara asked. “What did you do?”

Seth sighed deeply and tried to organize his thoughts as to how to best describe recent events. Deciding simpler was probably better, he began speaking.

“I decided, as you have probably already assumed I would eventually, to align myself with the goddess Ishanya. I was able to summon her and speak to her, and we came to an agreement.” Seth paused trying to gauge Sara’s reaction, though her face remained a stone mask, showing no sign of emotion. “Ishanya agreed to offer me her blessing, though unlike any other blessing I have ever heard of or read of before, and in return I do not have to worship her or pray to her. All I have to do is tell those who ask where I get my power that I am blessed by Ishanya,” Seth concluded.

“So then you have been blessed?” Sara asked and without waiting for a response continued her questioning. “Can you feel her power now? That is, if you don’t have to pray for it or ask for it? How does she benefit from this arrangement? How is it unlike any other blessing you have heard of?” Sara was obviously confused.

“I’m sorry, love. My description of events was a bit too direct, I suppose,” Seth said with a grin. “Let's see if I can fill in the gaps. I cannot feel her power, and I am beginning to think it is not her power I will be using to perform. She blessed me with what she called the vision of the gods, the ability to see the world, or perhaps life, as they do. I must admit that thus far it is a rather amazing gift. The best I can describe it to you is by telling you a little of what I have read and then telling you what it is I now see. Some philosophies about the gods, magic and the creation of the world say that all the gods pooled a portion of their own life force, their magic, or the essence of themselves into one reserve of energy. This energy is what they used to populate the world with life of all types. But greedy as the gods may be, they eventually began trying to subvert the different forms of life on the planet because they discovered that if one of them was worshipped by the life they all created, then when that life ended all the energy it contained would return itself
not
to all the gods who originally pooled their energy, but to the
one god
with whom the individual life had aligned itself.” Seth waited a moment until Sara nodded her understanding before continuing. “As for the vision of the gods, I believe they see not only the beings in the world, but they see their own life force within those beings, and that is the source of magic. When I look at you now, I see not only you, but also a faint glow within and around your body of every color imaginable. You are even more breathtaking now than before though I must admit that I never thought it possible,” Seth said with a smile.

“OK, so I look like a rainbow lantern,” Sara laughed. “But how does that help you to do magic, and what does she get out of it?”

“I think what Ishanya was trying to show me is that the power to do magic is all around us, but we don’t know how to access it. I am just guessing, as I haven’t yet tried, but I think on top of giving me the ability to see it, she has also given me the ability to extract it and therefore use it,” Seth answered. “As for what she gets out of it, I think it is fairly simple. She told me in exchange for not having to worship or pray that I must tell those who witness my deeds that I am blessed by her. My thinking on this is that she predicts that I will accomplish some amazing feat or another, and by invoking her name she will gather more followers and thus eventually more power.”

“OK, I think I understand what you mean,” Sara said after a minute to take it all in. “Do you think that this will solve our problem?”

“Honestly I didn’t know how you would feel about it,” Seth admitted. “You seem to be handling it well and I do think it will keep us together, yet to be honest I will have to do a little experimenting to see exactly how it is going to work.”

“I hope you are right, my love,” Sara said turning in Seth’s arms to snuggle her face into his chest. “But wait…if I am a rainbow lantern, what colors are you?”

“Wow, I hadn’t even thought about it,” Seth admitted. Unwrapping his arm from around Sara’s waist he held it up into the candle light. At first nothing at all was distinguishable with the low lighting and all the shadows. After a moment Seth slowly realized that it wasn’t shadow at all that was concealing the ethereal glow within himself; it was simply that his glow was the same color as the shadows that covered him nearly completely. His aura was describable as nothing other than black, the absence of light.

“Mine is black,” Seth said, slightly concerned.

“So, if I have not sworn loyalty to any god in particular and I look like a rainbow, and you now have sworn loyalty to Ishanya and your glow or whatever is black, then would it be safe to say that those whose allegiance is to a different god may then be a different color?” Sara asked more or less just thinking out loud.

“I think that you are probably a genius, just one more reason I love you, and I will try and find out later this morning,” Seth answered.

“So are you going to tell Jud today?” Sara asked.

“I think I will avoid him until I know more about what is going on, but I will tell him as soon as I can prove it. But even then I believe it best to be cautious about just how much we tell anyone,” Seth replied, deciding to himself that before the next night fell, he would learn the secret of accessing the power of the gods.

Chapter 4

New World, New Rules

Sara left Seth with the coming of daylight, and knowing that Jud would be roaming the halls of the tower soon, Seth dressed quickly. Leaving his room he swept silently down the hall to the staircase. His every intention was to leave the mage’s tower as quickly as possible, unseen, and lose himself in the city to research his newfound abilities. But a few floors down and Seth was already finding his curiosity hard to contain. It also became very readily apparent that Sara’s insight might have very well been correct. Seth noticed that all the mages he passed while traversing the many flights of stairs only had two different colors of auras. Those who wore the red robes conveniently had a crimson-toned aura that hinted of golds and yellows. Those who wore the white healing robes carried an aura of a pale blue hue, so faint was the tone that it was nearly white like the robes that adorned them. Those two particular auras would be easy enough to spot out in public, Seth thought, as he finally made it to the base of the great staircase and stepped out into the street.

The gates to the castle complex lay open and multitudes of people roamed the castle grounds freely, carrying out one task or another, and Seth was immediately overwhelmed. He had somewhat prepared himself for what he was expecting to see, but it was obviously apparent he had no idea what to expect. It wasn’t simply that he had not properly prepared himself for the discovery that not only all the people now glowed in a multitude of auras, but so did the animals, the grass, the trees, the birds flying over head, even the ground itself appeared to have a peppering of its own. This, although visually stunning and unexpected, was not at all what overwhelmed him the most. It was apparent now that not only could he see the hundreds of auras around him, but he could feel them, as if they called to him, constantly tugging at the corners of his mind, reaching out to him from every part of the courtyard, from every direction, including the sky above and the ground below. Seth needed a smaller test sample, something he could wrap his mind around.

Deciding upon a new course of action, he bent his head low, and pulled his cowl down over his face, shielding his eyes from all that now glowed around him. Hiding the view helped him to relax, but he could still feel the multitude of auras calling to him. Taking a deep breath he headed straight towards the main gate, eyes on the ground. Finally crossing the threshold of the iron gate, Seth lifted his head and easily spotted a destination, huddled back down and trudged hurriedly forward to the nearest inn.

Stepping into the inn, the smell of ale and food assaulted Seth, making him realize he was both hungry and thirsty. He quickly located a table in the corner facing into the room, giving him a clear view of everyone else in the establishment. There were eight other customers this morning as well as the bar tender and a young waitress. Seven of the ten Seth assumed swore their loyalty to no god, as their auras were much like Sara’s. Both the bartender and the young waitress had auras that swirled somewhere between purple and dark blue. The remaining aura in the room belonged to an older man, and his was a brilliant emerald green.

As Seth waited for the waitress to make her rounds and come to his table to take his order, he took a few moments to open himself up to his surroundings and sift through what he was feeling so as to try and make sense of what was going on. Seth noticed several things after calming himself, all of which he committed to memory. First, although there was a limited number people in the room, he could still feel the pull from other auras, but whether they were outside on the street passing by, or further away, Seth could not determine. What he did notice, however, was that the pull was greater from those in the room with him than from those separated from him by the stone wall of the inn. Those closest to him physically created the greatest pull, though the difference as far as he could tell was miniscule from one to the other in this small of a space.

Next Seth closed his eyes. He knew visually what the room and the people in it looked like, and using that as a guide, was able to isolate mentally the pull of each individual aura in the room. What surprised him was that though seven people in the room had what appeared to be identical auras, each had its distinct, unique feel to it. Opening and closing his eyes several times, he was able to confirm what he felt when his eyes were closed, and with only a few minutes’ practice, he realized that he could actually track the progress of the waitress through the room with his eyes closed by using the other auras in the room like physical landmarks. Seth was beginning to get excited. Already he knew the implications of the importance of this new ability. As a test, Seth remained seated, focused inward, feeling the auras in the room, and opened his eyes just as the waitress came to a stop in front of his table.

Since this was the first meal he had had outside the tower in what seemed an eternity, he overindulged himself in a large breakfast of eggs, salted pork and porridge, washing it all down with honey mead. Seth ate quickly and quietly, finding himself chewing on multiple occasions with his eyes closed, feeling those around him rather than seeing them. So far, the entire transformation seemed to be completely logical. Those who worshiped individual gods had particular auras. The world as the gods saw it was filled with the power they used to bless their chosen champions. That being as it was, Seth then could only assume that the power the goddess promised him was wrapped up in the world around him, and as far as he could ascertain it was only available in the living creatures of the world. Seth realized that he had stumbled upon the catch. Gods made no dealings unless it benefited themselves, and Ishanya had willingly given Seth all he had asked for, even without him actually asking for it.

However, there was a catch or a price, so to speak. It hit Seth like a brick wall, realizing all too well that in order for him to use the power of the gods to perform feats of magic, he was going to have to siphon the spark of life, given by the gods, from the living beings around him, effectively shortening their lifespan or killing them all together. Sadly Seth knew without even a thought against it that if this was the price he would have to pay to spend the rest of his days at Sara’s side, no matter the consequence, no matter how it wrenched his guts, twisting his insides, he would do it to be with her. Though being a man of morals, Seth could pick and choose those he siphoned from, sparing the kind and honorable, taking that which he needed from the greedy and evil of the world. Knowing this in his heart, Seth paid his tab leaving an appreciative tip for the young waitress, and set out on his way to discover precisely how he was to siphon this power from the world of the living around him.

Seth already had a destination in mind, and headed directly toward the city wall at a brisk pace. It was difficult to completely ignore the hundreds or perhaps thousands of tendrils tugging at his mind on his way to the city wall, but the further Seth walked and the longer he was exposed, the more he realized that like with the sounds in a busy marketplace, he could tone out the constant nagging feeling pulling at his mind. It took quite some time to walk the distance from the castle walls all the way to the city walls, but Seth passed the distance and the time with little exercises using his new mental abilities. Before long he could walk long stretches of road without bumping into another person, all with his eyes closed. He also discovered there were several different color variations of auras walking among the public of the castle city, and, to his surprise, before he came to stand at the city gates he had already become able to differentiate between the variations by feel as well as sight.

Finding himself at the gate he simply nodded to the guards and walked straight through into the countryside beyond. The city guards generally were used to keep people out, not keep them in. Seth turned left directly outside the gate, following the giant stone wall around the city and hiding within its shadow. Sighting a small stand of trees surrounded by shrubs and other foliage, he altered his route and made directly for the cover of the trees.

Seth stood below the canopy of a half a dozen young trees, completely hidden from view from the guards patrolling along the top of the city walls. The trees, the bushes, the grass, the soil, everything around him radiated the same rainbow hue of those people who had sworn no loyalty to a god with a barely perceptible difference between people and plant. Seeing this Seth rationalized that if he was to end life in order to perform magic, he would rather end that of plants, insects or animals if the power they contained was the same as in people. Being that it was the power of the gods who created all living things, Seth determined it would matter little where he siphoned his power from, so long as he had a source.