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"Where did you get the Word?" Cain asked.
Thane pulled a small book from his back pocket and held it up for them all to see. "When I explained to my brother, the priest, what I wanted to do, he gave me this. Evidently, it's a list of all Words that the average priests are expected to know. They memorize the most popular, but keep one of these just in case something slips their mind. They are also highly regulated and almost impossible to get."
"So they'll miss it?" Dahlia asked.
Thane shook his head. "Laird said he lost his first book years ago. He had to get a replacement, got his ass chewed, and was given all of the normal threats that the leadership likes to throw around so easily. You know, that if it happens again, it'll be a sign of blasphemy, and things like that. Well, he got the replacement and then found the original a couple of months later. This is the missing book. No one knows he had it, so no one's going to miss it."
"And we can say the Words?" Nikki asked.
Thane just gestured to Dahlia. "You might want to shield your eyes, because this is bright."
Without needing to look at the book, Dahlia said something that human ears simply couldn't comprehend. The Word she spoke wasn't so much a sound as an effect, then the entire room suddenly became blazingly bright. It was as if every possible surface glowed with some kind of inner light, until Cain's eyes watered to protect themselves.
Then Thane spoke another, and the light immediately vanished. For a moment, all four of them sat in stunned silence. The implications of this were amazing. If the eidolon could use the Words of power to attack the Inquisition, then the war would no longer be one-sided! They would be able to make the bubbles to hide what they were doing from the rest of the world. They could push the inquisitors back, steal the air from their lungs, and so many other things to even the playing field.
This was a game changer.
But before he could even verbalize that, Nikki was flapping her hand at the book. "Show me. I want to try one."
"How about we stick with the one that we know won't blow anything up," Thane suggested, pointing at one of the pages. "It's this one, and you want to think about how to say it before you actually try. The pronunciation guide is up here in the front, and it tends to work best if you focus on the goal you want to happen."
Nodding, Nikki flipped between the pages. Then, when she was finally ready, she closed the cover, lifted her head and took a deep breath. Cain had just enough time to see her lips move before the room started glowing again. Lifting a hand to shield his eyes, he managed to hear Nikki sucking in a surprised breath, then Thane repeated the Word to turn it off.
"Fuck," Nikki gasped. "You forgot to mention that it sucks vitality! Holy shit, that drains as bad as casting a spell."
"Wait. What?" Dahlia asked. "It didn't drain me. I didn't feel any extra use of vitality."
"So why did I?" Nikki asked.
"Did you do it right?" Dahlia asked.
Nikki flapped her arms in exasperation. "How the fuck am I supposed to know? I've never been an inquisitor before."
"Wait," Thane said, trying to calm the women down. "Maybe it has something to do with what we were talking about earlier? The whole thing about being older means you have more power?"
Cain chuckled. "Thane, I'm going to give you one word of advice as a new husband. Do not ever insinuate that your wife is getting old."
Thane ducked his head and groaned. "That is not at all what I meant. I am also resisting every single urge I've ever had to make it very clear that Dahlia doesn't look old, because you're an asshole, Cain. Just so you know."
That one little line made Cain decide he didn't hate the hunter. No, he wasn't going to be swayed as easily as Dahlia and Nikki, because he wasn't impressed with Thane's chiseled jaw and refined nose. But now the girls were laughing instead of panicking about the differences in their ability to use the Words. Still, thereweredifferences. The bigger question was why.
"What happens to you when you use a Word?" Cain asked Thane.
The man shrugged. "It's like a rush."
"A rush of what?" Nikki asked.
"You know, a rush," Thane tried to explain. "Like riding on a roller coaster, or doing something exciting. There's this feeling that's almost like excitement, but more internal than external. They feel good."
"Is the rush from using your own vitality?" Dahlia asked. "Because we already know that you seem to have more than most inquisitors."
"Or is Thane right and it has something to do with power growing as we age?" Cain asked.
There was only one way to know, so Cain pushed to his feet and crossed the room. Holding his hand out, he made a silent request for the book. Once again, Thane opened it to point to the Word the two women had both used before flipping to the front to show him the pronunciation. Nodding to show he understood, Cain looked over the strange symbols that stood where letters should be.
They were a mix of ancient alphabets, foreign ones, and accent marks. It was clearly not the standard American alphabet they'd chosen to use, which made an odd sort of sense. So, just like the women had, he flipped back and forth until he felt confident he could say it properly. Then Cain looked over at Thane.
"Give it only a few seconds, and turn it off. That should be long enough for me to know if it drains or not, but not so long that it could cause me problems."
