Isolation Page 4

  “Keep it simple. We just want her to know you are here, so she can come home. Everything else can be said when she arrives.”

  Deciding it didn't matter what I wrote, I penned two sentences: Come home. We are waiting for you.

  She knew I was the only person on Earth who could activate the journal and write in it, so she could infer that I was waiting here for her from the simple phrase.

  I stared at the pages for another minute, waiting to see if there would be an immediate answer. When there wasn't, I looked at Xavier. “Now what?”

  “We practice. I may not be any good with weapons training, but my cat reflexes will be a good challenge for your endurance and evasive maneuvers. When we get to the other realms, you will need your physical skills as well as your magical ones.”

  He instructed me to push the furniture to the edges of the room to make way for a training “ring” of sorts. Once the big pieces were against the wall, he gave me the briefest of instructions. “I'm going to attempt to land a blow or knock you over. Your job is to prevent me from doing so. I'll start easy to gauge your abilities, and then we will get to the real training.”

  “I took some martial arts training growing up, and I do a lot of hiking, so I am in pretty good shape. I think you'll be surprised to see that I can handle this pretty well.” My eyebrows raised questioningly as I looked at him, wondering why he hadn't moved yet.

  I made the mistake of letting my guard down and still staring at him in consternation when he launched himself at me. I managed to lurch to the side and avoid a full-on tackle, but his body weight knocked me off balance enough that I hit the floor hard with my knees.

  “What the hell?” I screeched at him. “That hurt! You said you would start easy!” I rubbed my already throbbing knee caps and glared at him.

  “That was easy. Not my fault you couldn't get out of the way.” Once again, he vaulted at me.

  Panicked, I spun around trying to avoid him and lost my balance again. He didn't even touch me. Barely brushing my arm with his tail as he went by, he turned and had himself aimed in my direction again within seconds. This time, he sailed over my head, causing me to throw my arms up to protect myself as I dropped to the ground.

  My already aching knees protested, and I didn't even make it back to my feet before he had a massive paw on my shoulder. Ever so gently he gave me a push, and I toppled the rest of the way to the floor.

  “Stop it!” I had barely made it three minutes and I couldn't go any further.

  “Get up, Everleigh. Nobody who is trying to kill you is going to take a time out because you are tired.”

  He counted backward from five, giving me just enough time to roll over onto my knees and throw my arms out to block him. I kept him from making contact with my head but felt the bruise on my shoulder forming before he even made his landing behind me. The only thing keeping me from crying at this point was my pride, and I had a feeling it was going to fail me soon.

  Over and over, he came at me. I had no time to learn any tricks, I just tried to keep him from knocking me over. I got so tired of hitting the floor, I began keeping my eyes on him at all times and jerking out of the way at the last second. Sometimes my efforts were successful, more often than not, I hit the wood floor with a poorly padded bone and had to drag myself to my feet again.

  After a jarring fall that resulted in having my cheekbone smashed against the leg of one of the tables, I couldn't get up again. The tears that I had managed to keep at bay thus far escaped. He had long since bruised my ego, and my pride tucked tail and ran as well.

  “I obviously can't do this” was all I managed to get out as he came to sit beside me.

  “You can. You just need practice, and we'll try again.”

  I'm not sure how long I lay prone on the living room floor, waiting for my aches and pains to subside enough for me to function. My bladder's protests were the deciding factor. I might not have had much pride left, but under no circumstances was I going to wet myself. Xavier made no move to help me as I struggled to my feet.

  After making it down the longest hallway in the history of hallways, I was so grateful to see a bottle of Tylenol on the edge of the sink. Downing a small handful with water straight from the faucet, I took a minute to inspect myself. In addition to discovering the magical side of myself, small physical changes were becoming apparent as well.

  My hair was shiny and had already grown a couple inches, and my fingernails had grown as well. My skin, where it wasn't covered in bruises, was flawless. And my eyes were morphing into the blue-green color that matched my soul thread. It seemed as if the magic inside me was making changes on the outside as well. Strange, but not unpleasant.

  Finishing my business, I headed back to the kitchen. I needed to eat. Soon. As I reached the table, I noticed the journal giving off a soft glow. My mother had responded!

  Her note said simply: I am so glad you're home. I'll tie things up here and see you soon.

  As I read, another brief message appeared: Please stay inside the cabin. You are safest there. I will explain when I get back.

  I had to stay inside? Talk about being isolated. I was extremely glad I had Xavier, or I might have gone crazy waiting for her to return.

  I asked him if he knew why I couldn't go outside, and he guessed at the reason but admitted he wasn't sure. The cabin itself offered impenetrable security and safety, he said, as well as masking the fact that anyone even occupied the building.

  Being forced into isolation, even with Xavier for company, wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Then again, neither was death or disaster, so there’s that. Add that to the fact I hadn’t even met my mother yet, and there was absolutely no way I was going to make trouble for her first thing. It looked like I'd be staying indoors for now.

  Chapter Five

  As I sat at the table eating, I let my mind wander, trying to ignore the aches and pains. So much had happened in such a short time that I couldn't process one thing before getting hit by the next. My thoughts were jumbled and confused, and trusting my instincts seemed to be my only choice. Since arriving at the cabin, my intuition had been making itself known, and I noticed I did best when I listened to it.

  Closing my eyes, I used my sight to visualize my soul thread. I couldn't help but admire it; its essence captivated me. I followed along it, studying the piece where I had woven Xavier's thread with mine, and noticing that mine branched out and continued past that point. Curious, I kept going, wondering where it would take me.

  The more I focused on my thread, the more of it I began to see. As I allowed my senses to roam, my entire soul tapestry came into view, and I gasped, stunned at its beauty. Threads of all colors wove together, creating a pattern like I had never seen. They shimmered and sparkled, pulsing and almost alive in their brilliance. I became immediately entranced. It surrounded me in an orb, having no edges, no end, and no beginning.

  I have zero idea how long I sat there. It must have been a while though, because I came back to the present with Xavier calling my name. He was sitting directly in my line of sight when I reopened my eyes. I blinked at him slowly, and then the dam broke and all the words came flowing forth as I tried to recount to him what I had just seen.

  Jumbled and unintelligible for the first two dozen sentences, he finally got a word in to interrupt me long enough to announce that he was completely unable to translate the gibberish I spoke into any sort of relatable language.

  Still laughing, and decidedly giddy, I said to him, very slowly and specifically, “I saw my own tapestry. I could see it. Every thread, in every color. It sparkled and is so shiny and I love it!” Unable to put my finger on what had caused the childish joy I felt at that moment, I was content to ride it out and enjoy every second that it lasted.

  As I came down from my personal, emotional high, it registered that he sat there staring at me, astounded.

  “What?” I asked. “Is there a problem? That was amazing!” His reaction left me a little dismayed and put q
uite a damper on my joy. All of a sudden, I worried that I had done something god-awful. Shit. Shit, shit, double shit. Now I’d done it.

  “Hello? Cat got your tongue? Penny for your thoughts?”

  He visibly shook himself and looked me directly in the eyes. “Tell me about it. I want to know every last detail.”

  Ha! He didn’t have to ask me twice. I happily recounted my vision over and over. It gave me so much inherent joy, I wasn’t even sure how to adequately put it into words. But I tried. I recounted exactly what I had done.

  I used the example of psychics who could see auras, the threads looked as if they glowed like a halo around a person. I saw my tapestry as an unending bubble encasing me completely. It had so many threads in so many different hues and complexions that I had a hard time picking out an individual strand. I had to admit that I had kind of gotten lost in it. Between the sparkling and the pulsing, and the colors, I became absolutely entranced.

  When the avalanche of words finally came to a rest, I was left staring at him, admittedly wondering if this might be trouble.

  “That is extraordinary. I don’t know if there has ever been a Scribe who could visualize the entire thing. Even the few who were able to see the soul at all were only able to see the patches in which the magic needed to be woven in or stripped, and in the case of healers, where it needed to be repaired.”

  “It was so easy! It just popped up around me. I can't believe it.” I felt giddy with elation.

  Xavier, however, chose that moment to voice his ridiculously practical reminder. “Just because you have seen your own, does not mean you will be able to see mine as easily. And, young lady, even if you can see it without much effort, there is much to be learned from a soul.

  “You will need to learn how to interpret what you are seeing, then become practiced at visualizing the patches that you actually need to view. The entirety of a being is woven into its soul. You certainly won’t need to decode his or her eye or hair color, and weeding out the unnecessary may, in fact, be harder than picking out the items you do need.

  “It’s something akin to picking out and understanding a single voice in a screaming crowd. Singular things are often drowned out by the many.”

  “Well, Mr. Killjoy, thanks for raining on my parade.” I sulked at him. He chuffed at me and butted his head up against my shoulder. I grinned at him and decided I would make do with visualizing the two souls we had available. Practice made perfect, right?

  “Well, let's see if I can visualize your whole thing also. Maybe if I can actually see where the curse is attached, I can learn how to break it.”

  I sensed a slight hesitation from him, even as he told me to take a look. Promising not to do anything other than look, I closed my eyes.

  Pulling his entire tapestry into my mind’s view wound up being more difficult than seeing my own, but I did manage. Having latched onto the thread I had tied to my own, I attempted to follow it back to his tapestry.

  During the first try, it faded out until there was nothing left for me to follow.

  I opened my eyes and looked at him. “Can I touch you? I think it might be easier for me if I do.”

  He nodded his assent, and I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder. Marveling at how soft his fur felt, I closed my eyes once more and tried again. This time I was able to keep the strand in view long enough to follow it to his tapestry. Just the sight of it caused a sharp intake of breath as I cataloged the differences.

  While mine was every color of the rainbow, his dominant color was burnished gold. Other colors were present and ran throughout. Although I couldn't immediately discern a pattern, I kept looking. I needed to know everything I could about visualizing the tapestry before I would be able to make changes.

  As I made my way through the threads, the area where the curse had been placed stood out like a sore thumb. The strands that ran across his tapestry obviously didn't belong. Where his were shiny and some opaque, the threads of the curse were a deep, matte black. Instead of being woven into the tapestry they were laid over, as if someone had tried to scribble out parts of his pattern. The feel of them was different as well; you could tell they were not part of him, but had been forced upon his soul.

  My vision began to fade long before I had finished inspecting it. I opened my eyes, surprised to find myself swaying with exhaustion. Luckily, I had done this sitting in a chair, or I would have fallen to the ground. Apparently, mental gymnastics used up just as much of my energy as the physical kind.

  I headed back to the study, eager to look for more input on seeing an entire soul. Hopefully there would be some basic recipe to the way threads were woven, and I could gain some general idea of what I should be looking at. It would be a huge relief if there were some method to the madness, and not woven all willy-nilly. I would be in big trouble if I had to figure out a process for getting to the part I needed to find, especially if I found myself in a position where I needed to hurry!

  While I felt blessed to be one of the few who could see an entire soul, I knew it also presented a unique set of issues. Obviously if nobody else had the ability to see souls, how on Earth were they supposed to pass along information about them?

  “Celeste? Are there any references in the study about how souls are woven together? I need to know how to pick out the pieces I need.”

  After a moment, I had started to think she had no answer for me until I heard her soft voice. “You can see the entire soul, my child?”

  “Yes, I can. The whole thing,” I smiled as I answered.

  “Will you tell me about them? I could only see certain threads.”

  Of course, I would never deny her, especially when just thinking of them made me happy. “So far, I have only seen my own, and it was so beautiful. The threads were all the colors of the rainbow, and some were glittery. Some just shined, and others were more of a matte color. It looks like an orb, surrounding me completely. It had such a joyful feel.”

  “I do not have any references for you at the moment, but I will see if there are any book here that would be helpful.”

  I thanked her and set about looking through the Soul Scribe book to see if I could find any hints. The only references within the book referred to the runes woven in to grant the soul their magic. And while that information did help to an extent, it left quite a bit to be desired in my education. It looked as if I would have to be self-taught.

  There would be a lot of trial and error going on, and we just had to see where it took me. So, I settled in the only comfortable chair in the room, after latching the door just in case, and opened my sight.

  It took almost no time for me to pull my whole soul into vision, maybe a few seconds, and again I found myself entranced. Admittedly, it seemed a little bit strange to be proud of something that you had absolutely nothing to do with creating. However, it did belong to me, and I was proud, nonetheless.

  After admiring it for longer than necessary, I began looking for patterns in the way its weave . It had many places where you could see the individual strands, each color very distinct and singular. It also had many places where it looked as if many tiny threads of multiple colors had been woven together to create the larger strands. It became apparent that without more input, I was never going to decipher the meanings of the different colors, so I began to look for the runes that denoted my magic.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for, so I couldn’t pick any out. I had visions in my head of what the runes looked like after seeing them in the book, but either they couldn’t be seen as easily as I had believed, or I didn’t have any. Or, maybe I needed to learn a special way of visualizing them that would make them more apparent. At any rate, aside from being able to visualize my own soul with ease, I hadn’t actually accomplished much.

  On a positive note, I was pretty sure that I would be able to remove the curse from Xavier. I could return him to his true self and allow him access to his magic once again. Eventually, he would be able
to return to his kingdom and rule it as the rightful heir to the throne.

  Chapter Six

  Leaving the study and heading up the hall to the main room of the cabin, I pondered just how I had gotten to my current place in life. It was all a little crazy. I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around the things that had gone on recently.

  I'd spent my previous years pretending to be normal, and then hiding out when it became obvious that I couldn't act very well. I'd waited for this my entire life—the possibility of meeting my birth mother and learning about my history, but it was still unsettling.

  I felt restless and unable to pinpoint exactly why. It didn’t come from being in the cabin, or even being alone, aside from a giant cat. Growing up, I had no friends, simply because it took an insane amount of effort to create a lasting relationship with others when you were constantly on guard in their presence.

  I always felt the need to keep things hidden, outwardly trying to be like everyone else, and I found it utterly exhausting. I decided it made things easier just to be alone. With Xavier, I felt comfortable to be myself. He knew about all my strangeness and still liked me. At least he was willing to put up with me.

  Amazingly, I felt more at home within these walls, in spite of the short time I had been here, than I ever had anywhere else. Which made sense, now that I understood a little more about souls in general. The magic of this place had been woven into the essence of my very being. I had been, in a way, partially created here. Maybe completely created here, for all I knew.

  “Ew!” That train of thought jumped the track rather quickly.

  I laughed out loud at myself and continued up to talk to Xavier. His first sentence as I walked into sight had me doing an about-face and scurrying back the study to hide.

  “Everleigh. Get back here. You know we need to practice.”

  I stopped mid-stride and sighed. He had a point. But I could still feel the bruises from our last session, and I really didn't feel like adding to them. Debating whether to turn around or just retreat, I felt a tug toward the living room, almost causing me to lose my balance. Oh, hell no. Was he trying to use his magic on me? I planted myself firmly in the center of the hallway and refused to move.