Katherine was looking at something far away and William all of a sudden wasn’t sure why he had come over to sit near her. He wanted to talk about what had happened. Maybe even thank her for helping him. But now that he was sitting next to her and she was deep in her own thoughts the only thing that felt right to him now was to get up and leave her alone.
He started to stand up. “I knew I couldn’t control the earthquake for any extended period of time.”
William stopped moving and looked at her. Her golden eyes were looking right at him. William sat back down and returned the look. It was an odd thing to be in almost total darkness but to see those golden eyes almost glow with his enhanced werewolf sight. Those eyes were determined but there was something else too, something he couldn’t quite place.
William didn’t know how to answer that, or what answer Katherine was looking for. “I wish I could’ve been more help.”
Katherine shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I knew that I couldn’t beat him. After what he did to you, I figured there wasn’t anything I could do.” She looked down toward the floor of the den. “But she was right, you know.” She raised her eyes to meet William’s question gaze. “Derceto, I mean, she was right about what she said.” William tried to remember what Derceto had said to Katherine. His eyes must have betrayed his lapse in memory. “She said that I should have known better than to use my abilities to the point of passing out.” Katherine smiled. “My teacher, Tyche, always told me how attuned I was to the earth, but I am no less susceptible to the draining that our connection with the earth demands of us Sages.” William was confused and didn’t mind letting it show on his face.
Katherine smiled at him. It looked to William like she was fighting to keep laughter from escaping her mouth. After a few moments Katherine cleared her throat. “Let me explain. Sages are reborn on the quarter moon. We are granted abilities concerning influence over the earth and the life that springs from it to include plants, and trees. Our life energy is tied to the Earth, and the earth to us. I can ‘force’ a plant to grow at an extremely accelerated rate if I wanted, or make a flower bloom instantly upon being planted as a seed. But by doing that, I give the Earth my life force and energy. Hence the draining effect for more extreme uses of our abilities.”
William looked at her. “But you tore open the earth that caused a mini lava eruption. I had no idea Sages could do anything like that.”
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Katherine looked at him. “Yes, we Sages can rip the earth apart, but as you saw it takes an extreme amount of strength and energy for us to do so. We have the ability to cause an earthquake that only encompasses a dozen foot radius. Just about any way you can think of to manipulate the earth, we can do.” She gestured to the walls of the den. “This forest is kept alive by the subtle use of that ability that have been created and renewed by the sages of the City under the Mountain. Tyche told me very early on that I had a unique and superb control over my ability, but it drains me just as it does every sage.”
William cocked his head to the side. “How much energy did it take for you to cause that eruption of fire and lava that you attacked Efraim with?”
Katherine stopped and relaxed back into her seated position. “A lot more than I want to admit.”
“And knowing how weak that attack had made you, you still tried to take on Efraim by yourself?” Katherine nodded while she looked up at him from the corner of her eyes. “And after all the hits you took you still found the balls to create that earthquake to try and save me?” Katherine looked at him, not saying a word. William shook his head and looked down at the ground in between his legs. “I wish I had your strength.”
The words seemed to catch Katherine off guard. William looked up to see a startled look frozen on her face. Her eyes had widened, and her jaw had slackened. She blinked a few times before she responded. “Fat lot of good it did any of us. I just ended up passing out and becoming useless to you and everybody else.”
William shook his head. He wanted to reach out to her and try to comfort her, but he knew that that would be a bad idea. “How are we to expand and move past our limits, if we are afraid to approach them in the first place?”
Katherine looked sideways at him. “That’s very poetic.”
William had to smile at that. “Thanks. I stole it from one of those “Determination” posters.” Katherine snickered. William’s face broke into a broad smile as a silent laughter shook his body. He let it roll through him flexing his abdomen muscles. Katherine still had a broad smile on her face and William smiled back. It really hadn’t been that funny, but he felt better, and by the looks of things Katherine looked a lot better as well.
“Anyway, thanks Will, I needed that,” Katherine said with a smile.
“Hey, isn’t that what pack mates are for, to help each other?” As he said that he thought of Nicolas. How was he supposed to help someone who didn’t want any help? He thought back to how Derceto had treated him. There was no malice in her tone only deep disappointment. He wondered if he would have handled that kind of admonition any differently. The thought of Nicolas brought to his attention that he hadn’t seen him in the den. He looked around himself at their dark surroundings.
“What’s the matter?” Katherine asked with concern filtering through her voice.
William finished looking around the den and found no sign of Nicolas or Charles. He turned back toward Katherine. “I was just wondering where Nicolas and Charles were and why haven’t they come back yet?”