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He sat for several minutes, but the peace and solitude of the garden did nothing to slow his pounding pulse.
He just abandoned his mother.
He could have protected her-
No. Teacher made him read many stories about Messengers using the Prime on Earth for anything but shifting. The Prime either didn’t work, worked poorly, or at least once, it killed the Messenger.
If he had stayed to fight, she still ended up in the ICU, and he could be dead.
So why did he feel like a coward?
Lela arrived at the appointed time. She was smiling, but her smile faded in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
He would not cry. He said nothing about Mom, but he pulled out the book and showed her the passage.
“Is that all?” She began her stretches.
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s get started.”
“You knew about this.”
“Of course.” She bent over in a most distracting way. “You worry too much.”
“Do you treat all the candidates like this?”
She stood up. “Don’t go there.”
“I need to know.”
“No, ye don’t.” Her expression softened. “I don’t know if we have something special,” then her face hardened, “but don’t mess it up.” She stretched. “Besides, no one pays any attention to that rule.”
He wanted to believe her, to assume everything was great, “But-”
“How did yer parents meet?”
It took a second, but he understood. Mom was Keeper and Dad was the Candidate when they met.
***
After they completed their warm-up exercises, she grabbed a sword and shield.
“Let’s see what ye remember.”
He shrugged and grabbed his sword and shield.
She came down with a vicious strike toward his head. He blocked the attack, but she drove his blade against his head.
He staggered for a second and then felt something trickle down his forehead. Blood coated one edge of his blade.
“Hey!”
“Is that all you got, lover?” She advanced with several quick thrusts. He used both blade and shield to avert her attacks, but she nicked his arm.
“That’s enough.”
She moved in, steel flashing, and she delivered a vicious volley of blows and thrusts.
“Are you a man” -she poked out her lip and then in a baby tone- “or a little boy?”
She spun and delivered a massive downward blow, striking his sword right above the handle.
His hand went numb.
The weapon fell to the ground.
Stumbled back.
She advanced, delivering blow after blow to his shield.
“Stop it!”
She answered with more slashes against his splintering shield.
Was she crazy?
His chest hurt.
She lunged.
“Stop!”
Something tossed her like a rag across the courtyard.
Where was his sword?
“Tobias!”
Chest on fire, he spun around.
“Easy,” Teacher said from behind the wall.
Somehow, Toby didn’t fire.
“Calm down. Drop your sword.”
Breathing heavily, he didn’t move.
“Toby. Please put down your weapon.”
The sword fell from his hand.
His legs shook like he’d sprinted five kilometers.
“Take a deep breath. Slowly.”
Teacher inched out from behind cover and stood next to Toby. Teacher put his ruined hand gently on Toby’s shoulder, looked toward the garden entrance, and nodded.
Raymond ran to Lela’s side. He checked her and then nodded to Teacher.
Toby did not take his eyes from Lela.
“Tobias. Sit down.”
He dropped to the ground, still staring at Lela.
Toby took in a sharp breath, and his eyes shot toward Teacher.
How must all this look?
Who would they believe? His words or their own eyes? He stared back at her limp form.
What happened?
“That was the blue beam.”
“What?”
“You already know these things, but knowledge and experience are - different.”
There are two beams, red and blue. The blue can stun, like what happened to Raymond at school. The red destroys.
He looked at Teacher. “Was this a test?”
“Of course.”
Lela was awake, pale, and barely able to sit.
“She’ll be fine.”
Toby’s breathing became something like normal. “How did you know I wouldn’t kill her?
“Most can’t make a red beam. It took all of your effort to generate that blue beam, right?”
“Y–Yes, Teacher.”
“To make the red, you must want the target incinerated, generate ten times the effort, and endure ten times the pain. She was in no danger, not now.”
“If the beams are red and blue, how come I saw nothing?”
Teacher looked at him for a moment. “Ask Carrick tomorrow.”
“May I ask another question?”
Teacher scowled, but then nodded.
“Why her?”
“You must be able to stop anyone from harming you, even someone you care about.”
He knows.
What would happen now?
Teacher walked over to check his daughter.
Toby looked at Lela again, but, like so many other realizations of late, everything fell into sharp focus: the dinners, the kiss-
She was doing her job.
She’s the Keeper, a grown woman, not his high school sweetheart.
As Raymond helped Lela down the stairs, Toby kicked himself again. How many times could she fool him?
No, that wasn’t right.
At least he wasn’t fooling himself anymore.
“Was this the last test?”
“Not even close.”