Page 44 of Awakening

“It took me a while to figure it out. Years actually.” He paused as he shifted his weight, repositioning himself. “You have an extremely rare gift, Trystan. A power not seen in thousands of years. That’s why it took me so long to figure it out.”

Emrys took a deep breath.

“You are a destiny bender.”

Trystan looked at him skeptically. “Destiny bender?”

“Do you recall how you’ve told me about things that you suddenly imagine? Moments in your life where you see a picture of a different reality, if you will?”

“Yes.”

“That is only part of your ability. What you have seen, in those instances, is a moment in time that was changed at some point in the past by a bender. By you.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Let me explain a little differently. A bender has the ability to change a person’s life path—their destiny. In most cases, the bender can sense the moment in which they must make a choice—they can choose to alter or not alter the person’s path. Unfortunately, the bender has no way of knowing the outcome of their decision. It’s just a feeling you get. With time, you can learn to identify those moments.

“As a bender, you have the ability to see alternate realities of a present moment. When you learn to use your power, you can search through time and pinpoint the exact event—the choice—in the past that led to the present reality.”

Trystan stopped him. “Earlier, when you were talking about the moment when you had to take me from my mother. The dream I kept experiencing…”

“Yes.” He paused. “You had a relapse vision of that moment… You saw an alternate reality.”

“How did you know?”

“I could see it in your eyes. Most people can’t tell. It happens in a blink—only a second or two. To you, it would seem longer.”

“You mentioned when you were having that conversation, you thought my mother was going to run. You were sure of it. And then she didn’t…”

“You saw it, didn’t you?” Emrys asked, genuine curiosity lighting his face. “The moment—the choice—that changed the path? What did you see?”

“In the past, I had only seen the real version—the one that really happened. But when you spoke about it a few minutes ago, I saw a different reality. I saw my mother run. I saw her captured.”

“That could explain why I had sensed it. Her fear. Her desire to run away. Because she was going to. Something must have changed in that very moment. Otherwise, I would not have felt what I did,” Emrys said.

“I squeezed her finger,” Trystan whispered. “That’s all I did… If I had not wrapped my hand around her finger, she would have run.”

“You see now how powerful a gift you have,” Emrys said.

Marc spoke up again. “Emrys, you said that he can’t see the outcome of a decision? How would he know therightchoice to make in those moments?”

“He wouldn’t. A bender cannot see into the future. They cannot see the effects of their decision until they actually occur. So they rely on feeling—instinct.”

Emrys’ emerald eyes pierced Trystan’s gaze.

“They do what feels right in their heart.” Emrys paused. “Think of it like a safeguard. If any one person had the power to knowingly control the outcome of future events… in the wrong hands, it could be disastrous.”