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The corridor was surprisingly silent as I approached the study door. I had expected at least some of the conversation between the men to be vocal. Tentatively, I knocked on the heavy wooden door.
“Come,” Errol’s voice responded.
I lifted the latch and entered.
I noticed Selwyn first. It wasn’t because he was visibly obvious. In fact, he was the least noticeable of the three men. Standing in the dark corner, he hid in the dim shadows behind bright sunlight coming from the window. Head down, arms crossed, tanned skin, dark clothing, only his eyes caught the light. But as I met his gaze, I caught a storm of emotions that made me pause for a moment on the doorsill. Something was warring within him, tearing him apart.
Korneli and Errol’s attitudes were similarly uncomfortable. Errol leaned back comfortably in his customary chair, arms crossed across his slightly rounded belly. Korneli also reclined slightly, but he didn’t look comfortable. Perhaps it was his personality, or just some past training, but he was sitting as straight as one could and still be relaxed. His handsome features were bland, but a definite essence of annoyance emanated from him. His emotional cloud wasn’t nearly as thick or strong as Selwyn’s, but it was still pronounced.
“Please take a seat,” Errol instructed.
I moved to obey with hesitancy. The air fizzled with unspoken words, both sent and unsent. I was fully aware of the contention between Selwyn and the two men seated before me. As I claimed the chair where I sat for lessons, Errol shifted and a loaded sending passed between him and Selwyn.
From his corner, Selwyn frowned darkly. “That was a low blow,” he answered aloud.
“But it is true,” Korneli responded.
“Your answer?” Errol asked.
Selwyn met my curious gaze. His emotion changed and a strange look crossed his face. “You say it is the only way.”
“If there was another, I would have pursued it.” Errol replied.
“We do not take this lightly, Selwyn,” Korneli assured him. “If it was for anyone else, we would not ask you for this.”
Selwyn’s dark eyes clouded. Pain flickered in their depths. “If it were for anyone else, I would not even consider it. But for him...” He closed his eyes. “I will.”
Although none of the men’s physical attitudes changed, the air was suddenly less tense. Selwyn’s cloud shrunk, but the forbidding feeling didn’t leave. He still was unhappy about the agreement.
“I received a letter from the Sept Son last week,” Errol began. I turned to find him lifting a heavy parchment piece from the top of the desk. “An unknown group is launching attacks upon his person. So far, there have been four fake accidents. It isn’t clear if the attempts on his person are meant to maim or kill. Either way, the letter has brought it to our attention that you are going to need more defender training than I can give you. Korneli, as your tester, cannot take on the role of teacher. That is why we have asked Selwyn to train you for the next months.”
This was the answer to my question about what they intended me to do after I completed training. “So, you mean for me to be a defender?” I asked because I wanted to be sure I understood it correctly.
Errol frowned. “No, not a defender.”
“Then what?”
Korneli and Errol exchanged a glance, but it was Selwyn who answered. “They mean you to be something for which they have no name.”
“Selwyn!” Errol’s rebuke was sharp.
“I know you don’t agree with this, but it is for her own good,” Korneli said.
“Zezilia, look at me,” Errol requested.
I met his gaze. His strange green eyes flared intensely.
“We aren’t telling you everything for your own safety and well-being. When it is time, I will explain what all of this is about. For now, please trust me.”
Biting back a protest, I nodded. “It would be easier to be content if I knew when I would be allowed to know,” I pointed out.
“Fair enough,” Korneli said.
Errol nodded. “Half a year before your graduation, I shall reveal the purpose that we have for you. Is that agreeable?”
Since it was now the middle of my second year, I had only a year to wait. After already waiting for a year and a half, another seven months shouldn’t be too terrible. I agreed.
The last of the tension suddenly dissipated with a silent sigh of relief from all three men. I hadn’t realized that it had been such a serious issue. Suddenly thankful that I hadn’t made more of a fuss, I listened as the three of them outlined the time that I was to spend with Selwyn over then next few months.
Korneli didn’t participate except for occasional comments on the parameters of the testing he was going to require at each testing session. When he was not needed, he contented himself with watching me. I tried to not let him know that I noticed his attention.
“I will be restricted. As I explained earlier, I am not going to be able to demonstrate any of these tactics for her. I refuse to allow her to touch my mind,” Selwyn was saying, when suddenly Korneli turned to Errol. I felt the sending and saw Errol’s frown.
When I glanced at Korneli as Errol replied, his face lit up with amusement.
“She knows you are talking about her,” Selwyn said. Suddenly, I was the center of attention.
“Zezilia, is this true?” Errol asked. “Can you tell when we are sending between us?” Fear filled my chest.
“Yes.”
“The only other person that I know of who can sense other people’s sendings is Ilias. Can you understand what we are sending?”
“No,” I said. My brain latched on to the fact I could do something that only Ilias could do, giving me a thrill of triumph.
“Am I to understand that this is something you weren’t aware of?” Korneli asked Errol with surprise.
Errol shook his head. “She didn’t tell me.”
Selwyn spoke up from the corner. “She would rarely have an opportunity to find out that it is significant. The only time that there are two or more talents other than herself present is when Errol and I teach her jointly or you and Eldivo visit.”
“Good point,” Korneli admitted.
“Have you always been able to do this?” Errol asked me suddenly.
“No,” I replied, watching his face as he thought. Ideas were whizzing around in his head as his face settled into his usual thoughtful look, puckered brow, lowered eyebrows, and pursed lips.
“When did you first notice it?” Korneli asked.
It took me a moment to recall. “It was the first time that you and Eldivo visited. We were sitting at the dining room table and you reprimanded Eldivo for poor manners.”
“And since then, have you noticed it more?” he immediately asked.
“Sometimes,” I replied.
Korneli turned to Errol. “She is still developing her awareness. This is unusual for her age. That means that she hasn’t reached her full potential yet.”
The excitement in his voice surprised me. I noticed new things all the time; why was this so exciting to him? It was nothing new to me. As I learned more about how to use the talent, I became more aware of senses that had always been there. It was sort of like walking; the muscles were all there the whole time, I was just learning to use them. I turned to Errol for an explanation.
He leaned forward with a sigh. His calm manner was a sharp contrast to the animation in Korneli’s face. “A talented child first discovers his abilities at an early age, four years being the earliest known. From then on, he continues to discover senses and capabilities for a period of about five years,” he explained. “We call it the period of discovery. At the end of those five years, the child reaches the level of power or strength that he will have for the rest of his life. When the child enters the teen years, his ability to concentrate grows to the point where he is teachable. So, then the trainer steps in and begins to mold the talent that is already there.”
Turning to Korneli, Errol said, “Zezilia appears to be a special case. First of all, until I happened upon her using her abilities like an untrained four-year-old, she had no awareness of her talents.”
“How can that be?” Korneli looked at me in surprise.
I shrugged my shoulders. All of this was new to me.
“When I had the Sept Son test her initial potential, he found the power of a fully grown child of her age. Since then, I have noticed leaps in her abilities that cannot be simply accounted for by saying she is growing more skillful.”
“So,” Korneli frowned, “you are telling me that she is still in the discovery stage. She hasn’t reached the extent of her powers and will not reach it for another two and a half years. So, this discovery of sensitivity to activity between other talents isn’t the first of its kind. Errol, why have you hidden this?”
“I haven’t.” Errol crossed his arms and frowned back at Korneli.
Korneli shot a questioning look Selwyn’s way. A sending passed between them.
“Considering Zez knows when you are sending and receiving, I would suggest communicating verbally or by sending to all of us,” Selwyn replied. “The answer is yes. I have known about it from the beginning.”
“I haven’t known about it,” I protested. “You mean that more of these senses are going to appear? How many more?”
“We don’t know,” Errol admitted.
“But we will help you adjust,” Selwyn assured me with a gentle sending of reassurance.
“Does the Sept Son know about this?” Korneli asked.
“I have kept him informed as we have discovered each, just as he is kept updated of Zezilia’s training progress.”
Korneli nodded. “Good. Taking all this into consideration, I would recommend that you have him conduct the final testing. I can handle the basic skills and memorization checking, but from what you are telling she has already passed me in ability.” He turned to me with an apologetic smile. “I am sorry to suddenly spring this discovery on you,” he said.
It wasn’t his fault. I should have seen it myself, except I had nothing to measure my abilities against. I couldn’t have known, and I now understood why Errol and Selwyn hadn’t pointed it out to me. Already, my brain was cluttered with worries, fears, and frantic thoughts as to how this would affect my life now and in the future. If the other students my age knew, if Eldivo knew, I would never be seen as an equal again. He would see me as even more of a strange being to be kept at a distance and respected. Already, he was visibly uncomfortable in my presence.
“You will not tell Eldivo, right?” I asked.
Korneli looked up in surprise from his examination of the study plan outlined on a paper before him. “Of course not, this is for the ears within this room and the Sept Son, not a trainee.”
“Thank you.”
He shot me a confused look before Errol called his attention to a detail on the page before them.
“He doesn’t understand,” Selwyn sent, his familiar wild taste filling my mouth. I turned in my chair to find him watching my face with sympathy. “It is difficult being different. I know from watching Ilias struggle with it. Korneli never completely understood his struggle. You will learn how to handle it. Give yourself time to adjust.”
“Am I dangerous?” I asked. It was one of the most pressing questions that flooded my thoughts.
“Follow the code and the Revelation and you will only be dangerous to those who oppose them.”
It gave me a small measure of comfort. Resolving that I would spend more time studying both books, I attempted to clear my head and listen to the lesson plan for the next few months.
––––––––
TRUE TO THEIR PLANS, my lessons changed dramatically the next day. Selwyn arrived while the family was still at the breakfast table. At his appearance, Errol sent Eloine and me off to gather supplies for the day. For me, that meant fetching the new journal that Korneli had presented to me the day before for note taking, quill pens, and an ink pot from the study. Eloine, looking mournful, presented herself to Selwyn with a small bag of sewing slung over her shoulder and a book clutched to her chest. The meeting in the study had kept me content in my own thoughts for most of the day before so I still didn’t know what all of Eloine’s emoting was about, but I had an inkling that it was somehow connected to Eldivo. Regardless, Eloine was tagging along with us as chaperone while Selwyn taught me.
Selwyn led us off into the forest in the direction of the tree house. I was surprised when we reached it and he set his load down among the gnarled roots.
“Won’t Candra interrupt us?” I asked as he straightened.
“She isn’t leaving the house today,” Eloine informed me with vehemence. “She is being punished.” Then before I could ask for more of an explanation, she addressed Selwyn. “Where would you like me?”
Selwyn’s face was missing its customary smile; however, his dark eyes were sympathetic as he turned his gaze to Eloine. “I was thinking that the tree house would be the perfect place for you. You can see what we are doing without overhearing. It is also much cleaner for your chosen activity.” He gestured to the cloth bag hanging from her shoulder. “Go settle yourself and let me know if you need anything.”
Eloine, with a dignity beyond her fourteen years, climbed up the swinging ladder and scrambled inside.
“What happened?” I asked as soon as her feet disappeared over the ledge.
Selwyn frowned up at the tree house and then looked down at me. “I am glad you asked, because Adreet asked me to inform you of the situation. From what I understand there was a verbal battle in the kitchen yesterday afternoon. Candra was pointedly rude to Eldivo, who then left in search of the more pleasant company of the gardener. Once he left, the three girls exchanged angry words. Eloine seems to have gotten the worst side of the other two’s tongues.”
I realized that a fight between the sisters would explain her moodiness and moping now and the crying in the kitchen yesterday.
“So, she is spending the day with us instead of Candra escorting us. Galatea is banned from any trips into the village in the foreseeable future and has been given all of her least favorite chores. Candra is banned from the outside for a month and has also been given hated chores. Every day, the two of them are required to spend three hours civilly in each other’s company.”
I felt my eyebrows rising as he listed the punishments. “That must have been some exchange.”
Selwyn nodded gravely. “I only hope that the discipline will teach the girls their lesson. Words are powerful tools that can wound the heart or heal the spirit.” Then turning his back to me, he began digging in his bag.
Setting my own satchel of supplies beside a root, I settled myself next to it.
“Don’t get too comfortable. We are going to begin with a demonstration.” Selwyn turned to me with a blindfold in his hand. “Come stand in the open area.”
I obediently scrambled to my feet and stepped over tree roots to where he indicated. The turf, clear of debris, gave slightly beneath my feet.
“I want to test what you have already learned and see what natural defenses you already have.”
“Natural defenses?” I asked as he came around behind me.
“Everyone has natural reflexes for defending oneself.” The blindfold settled over my eyes and the world went dark. I instinctively reached for my amoveo and suddenly I could see again, but only dimly. The dense movement of energy outlined the solid world that I couldn’t see, but I could not discern colors or textures. “When attacked, a person intuitively defends what is most valuable with everything at hand. A trainee’s reactions under similar stress can give a Trainer insight into how the trainee will fight and what techniques will work best.”
“So, you are going to attack my mind?” I asked.
“Yes. The mind is the most important battlefield and defending it is the most difficult accomplishment for a defender or any talent. While I can train your body to defend a physical attack, all of that skill can be used against you should they gain control your mind.”
“So, you are going to teach me to fight with my hands?” I asked.
“Hands, feet, everything,” he replied. His amusement flickered across my senses. “When I am finished you will be a fully trained defender.”
“But...” I was about to point out that I wasn’t going to be a defender, but Selwyn cut me off.
“Enough questions. Ready yourself.” He stepped away and I hurriedly threw up the few defenses that Errol had taught me and solidified the energy sphere around me. I didn’t trust Selwyn not to use a physical tactic to distract me from mental defense.
He waited. I could feel him standing there. Calm and confident, he watched me. I waited, sweat dripping between my shoulders and gathering on my forehead beneath the blindfold. Nervously I traced the defensive walls, sealing the cracks.
Suddenly he attacked, prodding a part of my mind far from my focus. Then as quickly as he had been there, he was gone. Poking again, he touched another area; this time it was walled. The defense crumbled. Fear flickered across my thoughts. Errol’s lessons were going to be worthless.
Then for the next five minutes, I had no time to think. Selwyn laid out a pattern of strokes. Unlike the first, these were annoying. The touched nerve recoiled, shuddering painfully. Unable to think of what else to do, I frantically followed his flicking taps, building walls and defenses as fast as I could form them. They fell as his assault increased. Madly erecting fortifications, I struggled to preserve myself.
Finally, as I tried to rally after a particularly stinging onslaught, he changed tactics again. A shard of ice cut across my mind. White and numbingly cold, it cut through my thoughts, freezing my reflexes in its wake. Defenses shattered before it, too brittle to resist. The shard continued onward, its path set and pace slow but steady. With half frozen resources, I realized that it was making a path toward the center of my consciousness, the nerve center. If he had control of that, he had everything. The pain grew as it neared its goal. I had no more options. Walling, sealing, and shuttering could not defend against this. Finally in desperation, I grabbed at everything within me and threw it at my adversary.
The world went black. I sat down hard on the ground and waited for the darkness to lift but it didn’t. Selwyn’s exclamation as my connection to my amoveo broke, assured me that I was still conscious. The blindness puzzled me for a moment before I remembered the blindfold. I pulled it off and blinked in the sudden brightness of the filtered sunlight.
“What was that, girl?” Selwyn demanded. He was just gaining his feet a short distance from where he had been standing before. He frowned at me grimly.
Slightly fearful of the intensity in his gaze, I lowered my eyes and busied myself with the knotted cloth around my neck. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You just flung me two feet with a blast of energy and closed your mind so tight that I could not even read a trace of talent, and you are telling me you don’t know how you did it?” He stalked over to loom above me.
I cautiously looked up. “I don’t.”
He continued to frown, but something new flickered in his eyes. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he declared and offered me a hand.
I accepted it. He pulled me to my feet and walked over to his satchel. Pulling out a worn leather bound book that fit in the palm of his hand, he flipped through it. “Can you touch your amoveo still?” he asked without looking up.
Reaching within, I brushed the organ and energy responded. “Yes.”
“Good.” Finding his place, he shoved it into my hands, taking the cloth. “That is what you did,” he informed me, pointing to a heading halfway down the page.
Consummo Propugnaculum (Complete Defense)
A technique that results in the complete instinctive and volatile blinding of all energies from within and without a talent’s center of awareness. When used, the talent will block any access to and from the mind by foreign attackers, influences, or thoughts. If done thoroughly, the subject will appear to have no talent to any observer and will disappear from the sensory detection of other talents. This tactic is difficult to teach and impossible to completely control. It is hypothesized that some are incapable of performing it. Very rare cases of completely unlearned, instinctive ability have occurred. See Kilor the Taller and Portus of Manot.
“I wondered if you had the ability to ConProp,” he mused as he studied my face.
“ConProp?” I stared up at him.
“ConProp is short for Consummo Propugnaculum.” He settled on the ground at the base of the tree and pulled a slate and chalk out of his bag. “Hand me the book and then come and sit. We will begin the first lesson. Now that I know what you are capable of, I know how to approach things.”
I obeyed, moving by rote. Unsure of what to think of this new discovery, I fetched my journal and writing utensils. Hopefully, Selwyn’s lesson would shed some light on exactly what I was capable of doing.
“This is the line that divides those with talent,” he said as he drew a wide line down the center of the slate with a chalk. “On this side,” he began writing on the right side of the line, “we have the Sept Son and his followers.” He listed the positions in the following order, each slightly lower and farther from the line than then next: Sept Son, defender, assistant, trainer, tester, recruiter, user, and trainee. Then he began writing of on the left side of the slate. “On the other side, we have those who hate, reject, avoid, disavow, and oppose the Sept Son and those who follow him.” He listed words that I had only heard of in passing while studying with Errol: Elitist, Viscus Voro, Impendo, and Denego.
“Over our time together, I am going to teach you to defend yourself from each of these.” He pointed to the left side of the slate. “To do that, I am going to be giving you insight that only three of these positions have.” He indicated the top three on the right: Sept Son, defender, and assistant.
“There are two reasons that not everyone knows what I am going to teach you. First, it is for their safety. If all talents of every level knew all the techniques of engaging those who oppose the Sept Son and the code, they would become overconfident and attack without provocation. Second, this knowledge is powerful. Only those who have demonstrated that they have the strength of character and discernment to determine when to use the techniques should hold this knowledge.”
A heavy blanket of responsibility fell over my shoulders. The weight pressed down on my frame. I was to be given something that even Errol did not know. I looked up to find Selwyn’s dark eyes watching my face.
“I am not sure I am ready for this,” I said.
He nodded his understanding. “That is alright. I know you are ready. You are going to have to trust me.” The depths of his brown eyes searched mine.
I felt the gentle brushing of his mind against my thoughts, not changing them, just soothing the nervous thoughts that rose to the surface. His calm, steadfast confidence soothed me, but I found the greatest peace came when I reached out to God. Lead me, Almighty. What should I do? The answer came immediately in a wave of quiet assurance.
He had a purpose for me. I still wasn’t sure what it was, but I was certain that this was what he wanted me to do. I trusted Selwyn as I trusted one of my brothers, but I trusted the Almighty more.
“Where do we begin?” I asked.
