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“Well…at home, we always have a fire for cooking or warming. I would light it from that or with a lamp. “
“Okay, but imagine there is no fire burning. How would you light it?”
I searched the healer’s table for fire lighting tools. “Do you have a flint? We would need something to create a spark and some kindling.”
“Right, see, they have taught you how to survive without magic, because they kept magic completely out of your world. But we are made of magic. Magic is in our veins. If we don’t learn how to wield it, it can consume us, but it’s not all bad…” Kol merely glanced at the candle, and it lit!
I pulled back so sharply, I may have stumbled if I wasn’t sitting. “H—how?”
Kol reached out to stop me from escaping him and blew out the candle. “It’s okay. Relax. I was just showing you how things are in a world of magic.”
“Fae here can just set fire to things with a thought?”
My mind went back to the destruction at my village. Huge monsters pouring fire from their mouths. I got up and paced.
“Is that how my village was destroyed? At a mere thought?” I couldn’t fathom it.
“Zaria, please come sit. There is so much more to it than that.”
I did sit, but only because I wanted more answers. “Explain it to me, please. What is magic?” I asked as rationally as I could.
“I suppose you would call it power. We all have power inside us we can draw on and direct. The kind of power and its strength depends on the individual, but it can do many things. Some as simple as lighting a candle, for example.”
I scoffed. “Simple?”
“To us, they are simple things. We all have different powers and ways we use them. There used to be great power in the kingdoms, but over the centuries the power has lessened. Some say it is because our connection to the Goddess grows weaker. Who really knows? But most fae are at least born with the powers of their bloodline and some powers native to the kingdom they originate from.
“So, powers come from the kingdoms?”
“Like I said, before we were united into the Twelve Kingdoms, territories were divided by their very nature. The fae of old lived with those like them so powers were linked to the lands they lived on. We all evolve into our magic differently. Some can connect to the Goddess through her ley lines to draw on other powers, too. Some have more access to this than others; ability varies, as does natural strength. That is something which is prized. Anyone who can harness greater magic is revered. That’s why you are so important.”
“Because of what I am?” I clarified, trying to understand.
“Yes.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
“Those who can take flying forms, such a dragons, are innately able to come into great power as we mature. But only if we come into contact with our other half. We call them ryders, for obvious reasons. The Goddess blesses us with this symbiotic connection to another, and when we make that connection, both flyer and ryder come into more power than is normal. Both individuals will already be powerful as the gift is only bestowed on those with much magic already. And the change doesn’t happen until the two connect and bond. But once they do, their powers meld, and the power between them amplifies. They charge one another, and the result can be incredible.”
I shuddered and the hair at the back of my neck rose. My entire body rejected it. I knew what he was inferring. I knew he was trying to say I was his brother’s other half, but I couldn’t be. It went against everything I knew. Against the Goddess and my parents. They’d never forgive me if I walked this path of evil.
“I have no power,” I assured him. Quite the opposite, truly, although I wasn’t giving him a list of my many weaknesses.
“This was my original point. You must have great power. The Goddess would not have created the bond between you and Nyx unless you were equally matched. And Zaria, Nyx is powerful.”
“But I can’t?—”
He stopped me. “There is so much for you to learn before you can understand any of this, but somehow, some way, your parents cut you off from what you really are. They raised you without magic, but they know it exists in everyone and everything. To not use it is harder than to let it be free. I’m uncertain what their motives were, but to hide you so effectively from Nyx, and to suppress your power so effectively took work. A lot of work. I don’t know how they did it, but now that you are together, sunshine, that power of yours is going to come out, and you need to trust us to help you tame it, or it’s going to… Well, let’s just say it’s going to be a lot to handle.”
I felt sick. I didn’t believe even half of what he said could be true, and whatever he was not saying was even more terrifying. How could such things be real and be completely kept from us? If this power existed in everyone and everything, then my parents and the elders were hiding it? It made me question everything I thought I knew.
“If what you say is true, how could it be hidden from all of us born there? If we all have this power, wouldn’t we know?” I was thinking of my siblings, of Luka, and how they never showed any signs of being anything other than ordinary.
“It’s likely they didn’t have power like you. It’s not common anymore, and those that live on the fringes of our world might have so little power that it would be easy to cover up by simply not educating them in how to use it. They would never know what they could do. You, though… They were suppressing it somehow. Otherwise, Nyx would have been able to find you years ago.”
I just couldn’t see how it was all possible or how to reconcile it with my beliefs.
“I know it’s a lot. But I’m here, which is a good thing, because it looks like my brother is doing his best to bury his head in the sand.” He chuckled, leaned forward, and reached out his hand to offer me comfort. Despite my warring emotions, I accepted it. I needed it. He gave my hand a light squeeze.
