AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The mage you killed was after Lio?”
“A mage of Anthros came to winter in the settlement and await the spring crop of infants. He planned to take away any child born with a significant magical aura. I was determined that if my little one survived, that child would not be stolen from me. So when I discovered a wounded Hesperine in the woods, I gave him my last milk goat. It was a difficult sacrifice to make, but if I got the Hesperine back on his feet, I reasoned he would take care of our mage problem. Imagine my surprise when the goat survived.”
Cassia laughed with her. “Have you told Zoe about that part?”
“Oh, yes. It is a great delight to her that Mama and Papa met over a goat.” Komnena halted at an outcropping that offered a stunning view of the sea. “I thought all I wanted was for my child to be born safely and have enough to eat. There was nothing more important to me than protecting my little one. But I came to understand I was starving for more than food. When I realized all I could learn here…all I could do… I had been hungering for so long for other people. And for myself.”
“You found yourself here.”
“And I discovered I like her right well.” A wave crashed on the cliff below, and Komnena spoke over it. “Do you know the name of this sea, which separates us from Tenebra?”
Cassia shook her head.
“The Sea of Komne. I wept the first time I beheld it. I asked Apollon if it would be presumptuous of me to name myself after a natural wonder Hesperines had known for ages, when I was a young mortal who had played no part in Orthros’s history. He told me, ‘It is yours. It has always been yours, and it always will be, for you have chosen it.’ So I became Komnena.”
“It’s a beautiful name. It suits you.”
“Thank you. We named our son after the sea, as well, for I knew these waters would carry him into the abundant life I wanted for him. Deukalion means ‘seafarer.’”
“A fitting name for a world traveler.”
“We are so proud of his decision to serve as a diplomat. And yet every time he sails beyond that sea, I fear for his return. He would not have come back to me, if not for you.”
Cassia listened to the waves, which had also carried her to Orthros. How grateful she was that she and her seafarer had both made it to these shores. She looked out over the Sea of Komne, and a sense of safety came over her. Tenebra was an ocean away.
“You were right, of course, when you said I faced a fear tonight. But I learned something important from it.”
“That’s what fears are for,” Komnena said with approval.
“I need to learn more. I have some questions, but I’m not sure Lio can answer them. Since you help newcomers, I was wondering if I could ask you.”
“Of course.”
Cassia needed advice a bloodborn could not give her. Komnena had been a human woman who had made the choice to become a Hesperine. “Would it put you in an uncomfortable position if I asked you to keep this between us? Even from Lio?”
Komnena gave a kind laugh. “It is your choice what you wish to tell my son, Cassia. You do not need me to deliver your messages for you, especially in light of your profession of love for honesty. I would say it is my sacred trust to keep my patients’ confidences, but that is hardly fitting between us. Every female needs private advice from other females from time to time.”
Cassia took a deep breath. “Lio once told me it is a sacred tenet of your people to offer the Gift to everyone freely. But I know that can’t mean just anyone. What must one do to earn that offer?”
“Ask. That is all.”
“But…surely you have to show you’re worthy somehow.”
Komnena shook her head, her eyes shining. “No. It is the Gift. It is well and truly free.”
How could it be that easy? How could something so powerful and good and true be right there before Cassia, hers for the taking? “But what if someone asked for it with the wrong intentions? What if they wanted the power for selfish reasons, and not to help others, as Hesperines ought?”
“A troubling question, but one to which the Goddess devised her own answer. The Gifting is an incredible experience, but not an easy one for an adult. Sucklings, in their innocence, come through it without trouble, and their powers awaken gently and gradually as they grow. But when an adult transforms from human to Hesperine, the Blood Union awakens all at once. Suddenly you are able to see all the life you have lived and all the choices you have made with empathy you did not possess then. It can be devastating to the conscience.”
Cassia didn’t want to imagine. Reliving allshehad said and done…all the things she was not proud of…and it was too late to change any of them.
“When new Hesperines come through the Gifting,” Komnena explained, “their hearts and minds are changed. They have seen through the eyes of all those they have known, and they have come to understand what impact their own words and actions had. They have learned how to treat others.”
“It’s like a purification.”
“A teaching, I would say.”
“Why don’t we turn all the world into Hesperines, so everyone learns empathy?”
