AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t care if we are cousins or sisters, or not related at all. We were safer on Earth.”
“You don’t belong on Earth,” he insisted. “Your mother was a self-righteous zealot. She preached pacifism while forcing her beliefs on anyone who didn’t agree with her.”
“I don’t believe you. Mom was selfless and gentle. She—”
“Gentle?” He laughed, a cold, embittered sound. “Your mother was vicious, easily the most ruthless member of our triad.”
“Then she changed significantly when she escaped you, because that was not the woman I knew and loved.”
He ignored the objection. “Your grandmother just explained why you were taken to Earth from their perspective. Now you will hear my side of the story.” He swept his arm toward the small dining table. “Let’s sit down.”
“I’d rather stand.”
“Are you always this obstinate?” His gaze narrowed then he moved to the table and pulled out one of the chairs. Rather than sitting at the table, he swung the chair around to face her. He didn’t bother with further pleasantries. Instead, he began his defense. “As I’m sure Iris told you, Altorian flames, like all power triads, are powerful weapons.”
“There is more than one kind of triad?”
“There are four. I will explain the details after you understand the basics.”
She nodded. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“The destructive power of the triad cannot be denied. However, they are not used to win wars. Their primary purpose is, and has always been, to avoid them.”
“How can a weapon avoid a war?” She hadn’t meant to sound quite so belligerent, but challenge rang through her tone.
“On Earth the concept is called mutual assured destruction. When the program began, the four inhabited worlds in our star system all possessed the same number of power triads. This discouraged any planet from unleashing the weapon.”
“Because the other planets would retaliate in kind?” Nothing he’d said so far contradicted what Iris had told her. It was more like a different perspective of the same events.
“Exactly.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected from her first interaction with her father, but this history lesson wasn’t it. She moved closer to the table, then carefully lowered herself onto one of the chairs. The worst of the heat had subsided, but her butt was still tender. “Your last few sentences were in the past tense,” she pointed out. “Was that intentional?”
“It was.” He shifted his chair so they faced each other again. If he’d noticed the stiffness of her movements, he didn’t react to it. “Triads were originally created to end a devastating war. All four of our inhabited planets were involved and they were on the verge of tearing each other apart. So, a group of scientists worked with Altorian mystics to create the triads. There were a total of twelve initially; three were assigned to each planet.”
“Why was that enough to end an interplanetary war? It certainly wouldn’t have been on Earth.”
He crossed his legs, looking calm and comfortable. “This is where things become more complicated. The mystics wanted the triads to balance each other out, so they were empowered with similar yet opposite abilities.”
Flora felt her brows scrunch up so she smoothed out her expression. “How can something be similar and opposite at the same time?”
“The triads all manipulate elemental energy, but the specific element is different. Altor was assigned fire, Torret water, Pyron air, and Houkdi ground or in their case sand.”
It was an interesting tale. She had yet to see any evidence that any of it was true, but it was semi-entertaining. Rather than slow down his rambling story with more questions, she just nodded.
“The triads were sent not to their own planet, but to the planet of their opposite element.”
“Fire to water, and sand to air?”
His head dipped as he said, “Exactly. The triads were a powerful deterrent. It took a few demonstrations of their abilities, but the war ended within the year. The deterrent continued to work for centuries, but then one of the triads was killed. This unbalanced the equation and the war resumed until a new triad was created and trained.”
“Grandma insists that I’m a conduit. Was I created by these mystical scientists or was I born with whatever abilities I’m supposed to have?”
“As the first set of triads began producing offspring, many realized that their children had been born with their abilities. This was a pleasant surprise to the originators. They had not realized that the alterations made to the participants’ DNA would become hereditary traits. The gene pool had to be expanded and carefully managed, but creating the abilities is no longer necessary. To answer your question, you were born with your abilities. Your bloodline is one of the strongest in existence today.”
“Why are conduits so rare if the abilities have been incorporated into our genetics?”
He uncrossed his legs and scooted closer to the table. He was starting to look impatient. “Conduits have always been outnumbered, and the genetic manipulation responsible for the abilities made them more likely to bear male offspring. By your grandmother’s generation, it was believed that the gift had gone extinct. And then we learned that they had been hiding from us, intentionally avoiding their destiny.”
