Murder Between the Worlds: A Between the Worlds Novel (22 page)

Jess led her back to another door, and she repressed a slightly hysterical giggle. She had no idea where they were going, but there either wasn’t a direct way to get there or he was looking for someone else first. The next room proved to be Zarethyn’s office, a cheerfully decorated, brightly lit place that was nothing at all like what she’d expected. The Guard Captain himself was sitting behind his desk filling out paperwork. He looked up as they entered and smiled.

“Good morning, Aliaine. Is this your first visit to the Outpost?”

Damn, of course we’re speaking Elvish
, she thought, smiling pleasantly.

“Yes, it’s an amazing place.”

“Indeed it is. When there’s more time you will have to take the full tour,” he said and she wondered if there was an actual tour, with a tour guide, or if he was just trying to use a human colloquialism. She fought the urge to giggle again as he went on.

“Unfortunately we have a tight schedule this morning and we’re expected in the reception hall. As you can imagine, it was very difficult to arrange this and we must adhere to the time table. I’m sure you understand.”

Oh my Gods, do they have a gift shop?
Trying not to let any of her thoughts show she said, “Of course I understand.”

Jess wrapped his arm around her shoulder, a strong comforting presence and guided her out of the room and through another maze of halls and doors. At this point Allie wasn’t even paying attention to where they were going. It wasn’t like she could run for it anyway.

The reception hall turned out to be a long rectangular room with a crystal chandelier and tapestries on all the walls depicting significant events from Queen Naesseryia’s life. The floor was hardwood, polished until it glowed and there were no electric lights here, everything was lit by ambient magic. It was so much more like what she’d expected from the outside that Allie actually found herself relaxing a little.

Zarethyn led her forward to where a strange elf was standing at the far end of the room, beneath a tapestry showing the Queen’s coronation. The Queen’s images showed her to be willowy, with long pale blonde hair held back by a delicate crown. The strange elf was also tall and blonde, probably from the same clan, Allie guessed, and he was dressed well in dark green silk. Allie guessed that this elf and the Queen were likely related, probably more closely than the loose ties Zarethyn and Jessilaen had to her. Zarethyn introduced her simply and Allie curtsied, an elaborate high Court move that she was surprised she even remembered how to do properly. She shoved aside the thought that it was ridiculous to be doing high Court anything in jeans and a sweater and faced the other elf. He was old, far older than any elf she had ever seen. His age didn’t show the way human age would; he looked like any other elf at first glance but he radiated Power in a palpable way that was more than a little bit frightening to someone like Allie, who had been raised to reflexively fear and mistrust powerful people.

Despite her best efforts not to show her feelings, or perhaps because he was very skilled at reading people, the old elf, who had been introduced as Tharien, seemed to sense her fear and he spoke gently, “Peace to you child, you are safe here.”

Allie bowed her head, overwhelmed and speechless. He reached out and rested one hand on her hair, as if it had been planned that way, and she could feel his energy swirling around and through her. It was a bizarre feeling and she wasn’t entirely sure she liked it. After what seemed to her like a very long time he finally lifted his hand again, and a moment later she looked up. He was staring above her head, thoughtfully. When he finally spoke he still sounded meditative.

“You asked me to come and see this child Captain, to find out if she has any gift for Seeing that might explain her unusual dream. She has no such gift, of that I am certain, but I am glad you called me here and glad I came, for I rarely see such a gift as this.”

Allie turned her head slightly to give Jess an uncertain look, although she didn’t dare speak or move further than that. It was enough for him to come up behind her and embrace her anyway, and to her surprise Zarethyn also stepped up and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Do not fear, child,” Tharien said, smiling slightly. Allie did not feel reassured.

“I am sorry if I am frightening you,” the old elf said gently to Allie, who was feeling very much like a particularly interesting bug under a microscope “You know that some people are gifted with certain abilities, beyond simply being able to use magic?” Allie nodded and he continued.

“You are an empath, which means you have the ability to read the emotions of people around you and of places. In time you may learn to harness this ability to use emotional energy to fuel your magic.”

Allie was thinking furiously. There were no empaths in the Dark Court because they usually burned out or self-destructed very early, so her knowledge of empathy as a magical ability among elves was very limited. Her grandmother had not wanted to train Allie’s ability since Allie had been so uncomfortable with it, so she had never learned to do more than shield out the emotions of others. The idea of using emotions as a magical power source was strange, but she was familiar with the idea of emotional energy as a type of food; many Dark Court beings lived on negative emotions, consuming the emotional energy of fear, anger, or pain the way humans ate a hamburger. It wasn’t a particularly happy train of thought. As she was thinking Zarethyn had asked if her ancestry was a factor and the old elf was answering no. Allie tried to carefully frame her own question, “Pardon, may I ask something?”

Tharien smiled, “Of course.”

“I’m… unsure exactly what this means. I can feel what other people are feeling, that part I understand, because empathy is a common gift among humans, but I don’t understand the other part or how that relates to–whatever that thing last night was,” she tried to choose her words carefully.

He seemed genuinely surprised, “Empathy is common among humans? Truly?”

It was Allie’s turn to be surprised, “Well, yes. Many humans have some degree of empathy. I’ve dealt with it since I was small but I mostly only know how to block other people’s feelings. I’ve never heard of anyone using empathy for anything except to read other people’s emotional states.”

Tharien, nodded thoughtfully.” Fascinating. Your gift then must come from the human side of your ancestry. It is a very uncommon gift among elves, and noteworthy because it allows one to see the true feelings behind the polite surface. It is unwise though not to learn how to control your power; you may be more open to the influence of those around you than you realize. With practice you could learn, I believe, to track emotions like a scent on the wind. More than that though, you will be able to use the energy you sense, as if it were any other magical energy. The other that I knew with this ability, once he had mastered it, was something to be seen. As to your dream, it likely was not a dream but either an emotional echo of the event, if you have a strong enough connection to the place it occurred in, or someone you are connected to emotionally is involved. Your gift allows you to form strong bonds with those you care about and such a connection would allow for communication, particularly of emotions, although since you are entirely untrained it is impossible to know who you may have connected to or for you to control it. It would be wise to seek training to avoid being unduly influenced by others.”

Allie felt her mind reeling. It was unnerving to look back at your life and wonder how much of it had been influenced by other people. Was that why she had been so upset after Aeyliss died? That night when she awoke she had been overwhelmed by despair and grief; was that her own feeling or was that the massed feelings of the Guard who had been all over the property investigating their comrade’s death? She felt her skin crawling at the thought that she was so open to outside forces and Jess tightened his hold on her. That sent her mind in another direction that was just as depressing. And yet she couldn’t help but feel better, more grounded, stronger as he supported her. It was unsettling to suddenly be aware of how much she’d come to depend on his presence in such an extremely short time. She spoke again, just as carefully as before, “Sometimes I have felt like I am drawing strength from… people I care about. As if their emotions are… keeping me going when I don’t think I can go further.”

He nodded thoughtfully, “This I have not seen before. It could be a human aspect of the gift, but I believe it more likely that it is an aspect of using emotions as magical energy. It is possible that you can use emotions also as personal energy.”

Allie swore to herself. Repeatedly. That sort of thing was dangerous territory indeed, and she was going to have to learn how to better shield herself as quickly as possible, to prevent herself from accidently doing it. So far there was no indication that her use of Jess’s energy, minor and unintentional as it had been, affected him in any way, but she wasn’t willing to take that chance. Struggling to keep her face impassive, she said “I have a lot to think about”

“You have much to do, I think, and there is still great danger around you. If ever you wish to further discuss this I will gladly tell you all I can,” the old elf smiled again and Allie nodded trying to smile back.

Jessilaen and Zarethyn had stepped back as well and both bowed deeply; taking the cue, Allie curtseyed again, praying this meant an end to the meeting. She felt like her head was going to burst and she couldn’t think straight. The high ranking elf nodded slightly, and Jess guided Allie back and out of the room. As soon as they reached the hallway and the door closed she leaned against the nearest wall and covered her face with both hands.

The Elven Captain, touched her shoulder lightly, “Why are you distraught Aliaine? That went very well.”

“Yes,” Jess agreed, “It may be a challenge to master such an unusual ability but it will be a powerful skill.”

He stopped as she dropped her hands and gave him a long look. “I don’t like the idea of using other people’s emotions like some sort of personal battery,” she said gritting her teeth.

He looked exasperated, “You have no reason to see it that way. Does breathing the air in this room take anything substantial away from anyone? You have a gift to use what others are not even aware of to your own advantage. You hurt no one in doing so, and it increases your own power. It is an advantage that should be made the most of.”

“And what if it does take something away from others? What if hurts them?” she said, unable to not say what she was thinking.

“You do me no harm when you draw on my emotions for your strength,” he said gently. “I am absolutely certain of this.” She shook her head trying to look away, but he held her chin and met her eyes with his. “Allie, I am over 700 years old. I know my own energy and my own self. Trust me when I say this–you have never taken anything from me that I noticed or missed. If my feelings for you help in any way, then you are more than welcome to them.”

“And what if,” she said flatly, “what you feel for me is because I created some sort of connection with you?”

“If anyone needs to worry about that Allie, it should be I,” he replied, equally grave. “Tharien said nothing about you being able to influence or control what others were feeling, only that you are sensitive to the emotions of those around you–perhaps what you feel for me is entirely based on the projection of my own feelings about you.”

She bit her lip, “That doesn’t sound right.”

“Try to project what you are feeling now, if not to me then to Zarethyn,” Jess said. His brother nodded encouragingly, obviously curious. She took a deep breath and focused on sending out what she was feeling, which was mostly fear. After a moment both elves shook their heads slightly. She frowned and without thinking, tried to open up to them, and since she wasn’t sure what she was doing, she simply lowered all of her personal shields. The next thing she knew she was flat on her back on the floor with their worried faces filling her field of vision. Jess was saying, “Fetch a healer.”

“No,” she mumbled still dizzy, “No, I just did something stupid. Give me a minute.”

She struggled to sit, both elves kneeling to support her; she could feel worry radiating from them. She heard someone walking at the other end of the hall and sighed, feeling a surge of concern and interest from the stranger. She brought her personal shields up as fully as she could and the outside emotions disappeared.

“What happened?” Zarethyn asked, when it was clear she had recovered a bit.

“I’m an idiot,” Allie said ruefully. “I couldn’t project to either of you so I thought I’d try reading you, but I wasn’t thinking of where we were or to extend my shields out, or anything else remotely intelligent. So I just dropped all my shielding which I probably haven’t done since I was taught to shield in the first place. I hadn’t realized–I must have subconsciously been blocking all the external emotions to a point where I wasn’t letting myself acknowledge any of it at all. Sometimes things leak through, if a person is close to me or touching me, and I guess I just started to think of that as the limit of my range, which it really isn’t. So then I just dropped all my personal shields and it was like–it was like–total sensory overload.”

The two elves looked at each other, and then Zarethyn asked, “What is the limit of your range when you are unshielded?”

“I don’t know, but for a second there I think I felt the whole Outpost.” She shuddered slightly at the thought. Zarethyn’s eyes went wide.