This time when Emiran opened her eyes to the vine covered wall she wasn’t surprised. She wasted no time in grabbing the ring and dagger from beside her head, and jumped up to approach the wall. Her doppelganger wasn’t here this time. She was surprised however to find that Traevin was leaning against the wall opposite the vines. “What are you doing here?” she asked, being sure to keep the table in between them. He smiled in a predatory way that made her skin crawl. “Who says I’m really here? Perhaps you’re just imagining me.”
He laughed and added “I’m here to show you the darkness within. Don’t bother trying to hurt me with that dagger. You can’t. But don’t worry; I have no intention of hurting you. I need you.” Emiran swallowed hard and slid the dagger in her pocket. “I don’t think I’m imagining you. You’ve never been here before; something tells me that you’re invading my thoughts from wherever it is you’re hiding out.” Traevin nodded appreciatively and said “Very good. Those quick wits will serve you well. You’re right of course; I’m here in spirit, if you will.”
“What do you need me for?” she asked, making her way slowly to the vine covered wall. She didn’t want to turn her back on Traevin, but she was determined to find out what was under the vines this time. After she had given him several minutes and he still hadn’t answered, she pulled the dagger from her pocket and went about her business. She’d let him answer in his own time. Using the tip carefully, so as to not scratch up the wall, Emiran pulled a chunk of the vines to the side.
As she moved them though, they dissolved into an ash like substance and fell away from the wall. Confused, Emiran grabbed another chunk and pushed them out of the way. These too dissolved into ash and dispersed across the floor. Even though it meant she was risking cutting herself open on the vicious thorns, Emiran grabbed a handful of the vines and pushed them to the side. Several of the thorns dug into her palm but she ignored it. This section of vines wasn’t dissolving.
She held up the dagger and looked at it carefully. “What’s wrong with this dagger?” she asked, turning to see why Traevin still hadn’t answered her original question. As she turned she was surprised to find that her doppelganger was back, in the same place she’d been last time. This time though she was very much alert and was watching Emiran’s every move. Her eyes followed the dagger as carefully as a cat watching a mouse. Traevin was standing behind her, his hands raised as if he meant to grab her head.
Emiran huffed and repeated both her questions, this time staring directly at him while she waited for an answer. Traevin flashed his teeth and said “That dagger has been magically enhanced. It has a touch of death. So when you touched the vines with it, you killed them. He pointed to her arm and continued “That’s why it injured you so badly. Had I cut you any deeper, your arm would have died immediately instead of just becoming deeply infected.”
Her doppelganger didn’t budge. Either she couldn’t hear Traevin in her ear, or she just didn’t care. She was solely focused on the dagger. It made her uncomfortable just how intently she was focused on it. For a minute she was almost certain that she was going to leap over the table and try and take it from her. “Seems like a more dangerous weapon than I thought it was. If you need me, which you still haven’t told me why, then why did you try and kill me?” she paused and examined the dagger again before continuing “So tell me, what is the darkness within?”
Traevin clucked his tongue at her in a tsking motion. “I didn’t try and kill you. Like I said, if I wanted you dead, I could have killed you easily. I had to give you a touch of death. Think of it as my family’s gift. Or curse if you like. It can easily be both.” Emiran raised her hand to silence him and said “So the old rumors are true then, your grey eyed family can kill people simply by touching them. Why pass this gift on to me? And why are you being so cryptic with your answers?”
Traevin looked her dead in the eyes. Again she got a hollow feeling as if he were stealing her very soul. “Come here” he said “Bring the dagger here and I will show you the darkness within.” Emiran looked at him dubiously but approached the table opposite them. As soon as she was in front of the table Traevin grabbed her doppelgangers’ head, just as she thought he was planning. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and her eyes went wide. She was no longer focused on Emiran. “What are you doing to her?” Traevin shushed her before she could ask anything more.
“Take the dagger, in the hand of the arm I cut open.” He tilted his head now, watching her like an owl might watch its prey. “Holding it with that hand will make it easier for you to direct the power. You see, that dagger doesn’t just kill. It literally sucks the life force from any living thing it touches. That is until they’ve been touched by death.” He laughed a gut wrenching eerie laugh and continued “So you’re safe from it now. You can use it, but it can’t harm you. So now, I want you to kill your doppelganger here. Use the dagger to suck out her life force. And use your power over the dagger to transfer that life force to yourself. Then you’ll understand what the darkness within means.”
Emiran had her doubts about this. But she didn’t really see a way around it either. If she couldn’t hurt Traevin with the dagger and she couldn’t wake herself up, then the only choice she had was to do as he asked. Besides wasn’t she really just killing herself so to speak? It was questionable yes, but certainly better than killing an innocent person. “Who is she? Where does she come from?” Emiran was asking every question she could to delay what he wanted. Traevin wasn’t in a mood to play 20 questions though. He frowned at her and said “She is you. A you from another place, and another time. A you that doesn’t belong here. And the only way out is through her death, by you. Do as I’ve asked and you’ll understand.”
Emiran sucked in her breath and plunged the dagger into her chest as she turned her head away. She closed her eyes, but she held onto the dagger. Even though she couldn’t see her, Emiran knew she was dying. She could feel a powerful intoxicating energy flowing through the dagger and into her arm. It took her breath away. As the energy flow began to ebb Emiran suddenly began to see her doppelgangers’ life flash before her eyes. Startled by this she tried to let go of the dagger, only to find that one of Traevin’s hands was encompassing hers. She looked up at him but no words would come out. He nodded at her though, seemingly understanding what she wanted to say.
“It’s almost done, and then the visions will stop. In order to understand her death, you must understand her life. Only a powerful oracle like you would be able to see their life as you take it. You must understand the darkness just as much as the light” he squeezed her hand tightly, holding up the dying girl with the rest of his body. Once the energy had stopped flowing, Traevin let her hand go and Emiran quickly pulled the dagger out of the girl and slammed it on the table. Traevin let the girl slide down to the floor and came around the table to embrace Emiran. He grabbed both of her arms tightly and said, “Now do you understand? You saw her life, as you took it, you saw the reason she needed to die. I need you for a new wave of humanity.”
Emiran opened her mouth to interrupt but he continued anyway “You’re going to help me take down COLO and start a new justice system, one that you will lead. Once you’ve acquired every family’s ability, you will be uniquely qualified to be judge, jury, and executioner, in our new utopia.” Emiran tried to pull away from him but his grip was tighter than she could break. She closed her eyes attempting to digest what she’d just done. She had more questions than she knew how to ask. She tried to center herself and figure out which order to ask them in, which was most important?
When she opened her eyes to ask who he was, as that seemed the most pertinent question at the moment, she found herself awake in her room alone. She sat up quickly, no longer feeling tired. Her mind whirled with questions. Had she really just killed this woman? Her mind tried to say no, that it was nothing more than a dream vision. But when she looked on the bedside table and saw the dagger sitting there, she knew in her gut that this was no dream.
Then she started to question had Traevin been in the room with her. There was no other way that the dagger could have gotten there. She got up quickly and slipped the dagger into her back pocket, searching the entirety of the room for a trace of him. Satisfied that he was no longer in the room, Emiran decided it was time to continue on her journey. There was no way she was going back to sleep now. Clearly Traevin could find her wherever she was. Something told her she wouldn’t get the answers she wanted from him until she reached the end of black cats crossing.
Even though it was 3 in the morning, she checked back out of her room and headed back out on the road. She had to find out what was at the next address. She was curious as to how Traevin kept finding her. As she drove she thought about the visions of her doppelgangers’ life she’d seen as her life ended and passed into her. She had been some kind of teacher for most of her adult life. Her mother looked almost just like hers. And her father was around even to the point she met Traevin. As she processed her life in order, she realized that somehow once she met Traevin she became an entirely different person. Granted she couldn’t directly connect her first coming across Traevin and her starting to disconnect from her family and becoming a meaner, colder hearted person. But given her experiences with him, and seeing the kind of person she seemingly was before he entered her life, it made sense that he was the reason for the change.
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There were stark differences between their worlds and their lives. Had she not looked just like her and had her same mother, she might have questioned whether or not she really was her. It was hard to place everything in order. Living someone else’s life in reverse and then forwards again was a huge task. Sometimes she had a hard time distinguishing between her own life and her other self’s. She felt like she was seeing through her eyes, the way she had with the young woman from the diner. She could swear if she concentrated hard enough she could hear what she was thinking at any given point in her life.
As she continued driving she thought about how things had ended with her sister and her mother. Given the current circumstances, she felt horrible that she’d turned her back on their teachings about their ancestral powers. Perhaps if she had listened better, she’d be better equipped to handle this. She didn’t stop driving until it was well past sunrise and she almost fell asleep behind the wheel three times. Finally she gave in and started looking for a place to rest. She still had a million questions and wanted to continue, but she wanted to make it to her destination alive too.
Out here in the outskirts of sector 14, it was much harder to find a place of lodging than it was in the city center. Eventually she found an area that seemed to be some kind of marketplace and stopped to ask someone. After going through a number of people, who eyed her with all kinds of suspicion, she finally found someone to help. She tried to not take it personally. She suspected they were suspicious of outsiders in general.
The young man introduced himself as Haru and said “You’re not going to find any standard lodging around here. This is a close knit community; we don’t get many travelers so we have no real need for building a motel.” Emiran rubbed her burning eyes and said “Well can you point me in the direction of somewhere I can stay? I only need to stay for a little while and then I’ll be on my way. I just need to sleep for a bit. Maybe get something to eat after I’ve closed my eyes.”
Haru looked at her with sympathy rather than suspicion thankfully and said, “Well you can come and stay at my place for awhile. You do look exhausted. I’m sure my family wouldn’t mind putting you up for a few hours.” He seemed sincere, even in his thoughts, which periodically made it through the noise of everyone else around. So Emiran thanked him and followed him away from the marketplace. After about a 5 minute walk they came to a small, rather dilapidated looking house. She supposed it didn’t look much worse than the other houses around here. And a bed was a bed as far as she was concerned. Haru walked in and called out to his mother to announce they had a guest. Emiran followed him in and closed the door behind them.
A robust looking woman with flushed cheeks came rushing out of what Emiran assumed was the kitchen. She looked flustered, or perhaps just surprised. Emiran apologized for the inconvenience, though she wasn’t really sure why she felt she was troubling these people. The woman said something but Emiran didn’t quiet catch it. Her eyes were closing just standing there and she fell unceremoniously into the wall which jolted her back awake. Both she and Haru rushed to her side to hold her up.
She apologized again but they both shushed her and helped her into a bedroom at the back of the house. As soon as she was in the bed her eyes were closed. She tried to mumble thank you but she was out before she could say anything. Thankfully her sleep was undisturbed by Traevin this time. If she did dream she couldn’t recall any of it upon waking. When she finally peeled open her eyes, she was startled to find that it was already sunset.
She leaped from the bed and rushed out the door, straight into a man she hadn’t seen earlier. She ran into him so fast that it knocked her backwards and he had to grab her arm to keep her from falling on her butt. “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention. The time caught me off guard” Emiran stuttered. The man still had hold of her arm even though she was balanced now, and for a minute said nothing. Emiran was sure she had offended him.
Finally though, he let go of her arm and said “That’s quite alright. I was just coming to check in on you. So it’s just as much my mistake as it is yours.” He smiled warmly at her and told her to come eat some dinner with his family before she continued on her way. Emiran nodded at him and said “That would be wonderful; I have a very long journey ahead of me. Thank you.” He looked at her with the side of his eye as he led her into the kitchen and said “I know. You’ll need all the strength you can get. So eat as much of my wife’s stew as possible! It’s very hearty.”
“How do you know I have a long journey?” Emiran asked suspiciously. She didn’t wait for an answer as she followed him into the kitchen; instead she tried to eavesdrop on his thoughts. Now that she was rested it was easier to focus on someone’s thoughts rather than just their memories or seeing through their eyes, so to speak. But try as she might, she could get nothing from this man. No thoughts, memories, or otherwise. He cocked his head sideways as they walked so that now she could see he was grinning at her.
“I know what you’re trying to do” he said “but it won’t work on me. My son still has some work to do, but you’ll get nothing from most of my family.” Emiran sat down at the table politely and waited for him to continue. His wife set a bowl in front of her and as he sat down he continued “You’re not the first telepath my family has come across. In fact, my family’s gift is the ability to keep people from invading our thoughts and dreams, unless we want them to.” Now he extended his hand and shook Emiran’s and said “It’s no mistake that you found us. My name is Jareth.”
Emiran shook his hand and finished chewing her bite before asking “So then you have a gift for me as well? I wasn’t expecting to find anymore answers before I got to my next destination.” She swallowed the rest of her bite and continued “In fact I just stopped here randomly. Had I not been so sleep deprived I might never have stopped. How do you explain that?” Jareth grinned at her now, his soft brown eyes crinkling as he chuckled. “As I said it’s no mistake. Traevin has been helping lead you to every place you need to go. He made sure you’d stop in our village.”
Emiran opened her mouth to interrupt but Jareth held up his hand to stop her “Don’t ask me how; I’m not privy to all the details of how he does what he does. But he came ahead of you and told us to be expecting you.” Emiran continued eating, waiting for her chance to respond. He was right, the stew was hearty and she definitely needed the food. She inhaled it faster than was probably polite, but she hadn’t realized quite how starving she was until she’d actually started.
Jareth and his family seemed unbothered by it though, and he continued on. “You are correct; I do have a gift for you. I am the current head of the clan of Anare. While this gift will help you be able to get a better handle on that telepathy gift, I’m sorry to say that it won’t be able to keep Traevin out of your mind” Now she did interrupt him. “How do you know he can get in my mind? And how do you know I won’t be able to keep him out even with your gift?” she stopped for a minute to figure out how to phrase her next question.
“Cherity wasn’t very willing to answer many questions. Are you more willing to help me? Because a gift is great and all, and don’t get me wrong I do appreciate what you’re doing. But I have a lot of questions I need answered. And seemingly every stop I make gives me more questions, but not many answers” Jareth looked at her with sympathy like his son had and nodded slightly. “I’ll answer what I can. There are some answers I just don’t have. But in answer to the two questions you just asked me, I will tell you this.”
He excused his wife and son from the table since they were done eating, and had just been sitting there listening to their conversation. They acquiesced and Haru smiled sweetly as he left and whispered “It was really nice to meet you.” Emiran smiled back at him and thanked him again for his assistance. Once they were gone, Jareth got up and moved into the chair next to Emiran, taking her hand in his. “Traevin is well known, throughout all of the ancient families. It’s no secret that he has the ability to invade people’s minds. My family is lucky that over the centuries we’ve figured out how to keep him out.”
Now he took her arm and pulled the gauze off of it. “This here though, along with that ring you carry, gives him a tether to you. A tether to your mind, heart, and soul. Even with my gift, you will have no way of keeping him out if he wants in.” Emiran looked down at the wound he’d given her. The faint grey streaks had definitely become solid black. But it was looking considerably better than it had before she ran into Cherity. She frowned at her arm though and pulled the salve she’d given her out of her pocket.
As she cleaned it with the salve she said “How do you know about the ring? And another question, if you have a gift for me, then why weren’t you the next stop on my list?” she pulled the card Cherity had given her out of her pocket and set it on the table. Jareth picked up the card and looked at it. “Actually, you weren’t supposed to get my family’s gift until you got here. But Traevin knew you were having trouble dealing with the telepathy gift. So he sent you to me early.”
He got up from the table and disappeared around the corner telling her he was getting more gauze and he’d be right back. Emiran finished cleaning the cut and examined her arm while she waited for him to come back. When he returned, he handed her a whole mess of gauze wrappings and said “Despite what things may seem to you, Traevin…cares for you. We all do. Perhaps not in the same way he does, but we all care about your well being. We all need you too much to not care about you.”
He helped her wrap her arm back up and continued “You’ll still need to follow the card, even though you’re receiving this gift early. The destination is still important. But I think perhaps you should return home first and do some research on your family.” Emiran looked at him out of the corner of her eye and said “What do you know of my family? How is it that all of you seem to know my family and me so well, when I’ve never heard about any of you before now?”
Jareth simply shook his head and said “Your family is the second most ancient magical bloodline. Your coming has been foretold throughout the magical families for many centuries. You were meant to come now, at this most crucial time.” He grabbed her right arm now and said “I can’t tell you anymore. You have to find out who your family is on your own. Now I must give you my gift, and my family’s mark.” He squeezed her arm tightly as he pulled up his own right sleeve to show her the mark he had on his shoulder.
She sighed inwardly. At least this one would be easier to hide. It was a light brown mark that might have been able to pass as some kind of strange birthmark. A shock of energy surged through her shoulder where he was squeezing it, and for a minute she could have sworn the mark on his shoulder moved. She blinked to clear her eyes and the mark was still again. She shrugged it off as her brain playing tricks on her. When Jareth removed his hand, she looked down at her shoulder. Sure enough, the light brown shield shaped mark, was there plain as day. His remained where it was though.
He smiled at her now and said “Now this will help you learn to block out other peoples thought’s and minds. But like any gift you’ll acquire, it will take practice to make it something that comes naturally to you, rather than something you have to work at.” Emiran put the card back in her pocket and stood up from the table. She was hesitant to do as he said and return home. She wanted to continue forward not backtrack. But something about the look he gave her as he handed her a bowl of his wife’s stew to take with her, told her she should listen. Besides which, she’d been ducking Tariah’s calls since she left and she knew that if she continued to do so, before long Tariah would have all of COLO out looking for her. As it was she was going to have a lot to explain.
She thanked Jareth profusely to the point he put a finger to her lips to make her stop. She obliged and thanked his wife and son for their help several times before she finally left. She walked back the five or so minutes to the marketplace and to her car in grim silence. It was actually nice not to be able to hear every mind screaming at her. It gave her some small relief. As she reached her car, her phone that she’d left there in her sleep deprived haze, incessantly rang at her. Of course it was Tariah. Emiran huffed in overwhelming exhaustion, but finally picked up the phone.
“Hey Tariah, I’m sorry I’ve been really busy. I’m sorry if I worried you.” she said “But I’m heading back home now. I’ll be there in about a day and a half. We can have a talk then. I’m ok I promise.” She hung up the phone before Tariah could respond, eager to get on the road. She would deal with Tariah’s feelings when she got home. She had other things to worry about right now.