Page 35 of The Freedom You Seek
“That’s very thoughtful of you. I mean, nothing of my story is a secret, but well, I don’t enjoy talking about what happened.” I paused for a moment and saw understanding in everyone’s eyes, although especially Thain’s gaze held a heavy dose of curiosity as well. “Dion and I just had a conversation about everything that led to my conviction.” Angling my head slightly toward the man in question, I nodded once. “You can let them know when I’m not around if you want to.”
Dion surprised me again. Instead of dropping another one of his sarcastic remarks, he just held my gaze. “Sure.”
“Good. For now, you’re safe with me and my team. Thain reported that Dion told you about the reasons we’re traveling?”
It was obvious that nothing was kept secret from Fig, and his men were absolutely loyal to him. He too, appeared to have faith in this entire concept of a dream-given quest. I still found it difficult to believe that this wasn’t just a prank—and everyone except me was in on the joke. “Yes, Dion just told me. But—it’s hard to wrap my head around all this.”
Antas shrugged. “Not everything can be explained. Most have forgotten how it is to be in tune with intuition, just as they’ve lost the knowledge that magic is real. And well, your generation has never been told about any of it. I can imagine that it can be a lot to be confronted with the truth all of a sudden.”
I nodded. My first impression of Antas solidified. His nature came across as calm and serious, so much so that hearing him speak about magic and intuition felt like a juxtaposition.
Fig took over after Antas had stopped speaking. “Exactly. And accepting that magic exists is a lot easier since it can be demonstrated. But you can believe me when I say all of us learned from early on to take dreams seriously, especially those of Antas.”
“Do you all have magic?”
“To a degree, yes. Antas has air magic and can manipulate the wind to aid the aim of his arrows. And he can wield his power to use the currents to speed up his travels. Then, of course, there are the dreams which give him vaguepremonitions, but they’re a passive facet to his talent, and there’s no chance for him to influence them.”
I did my best to comprehend what I’d learned as I was finishing my bread. It had been almost fresh, and the cheese had tasted deliciously tangy. Cleaning my apple on my borrowed robe’s sleeve, I slightly leaned forward to listen. I was so engrossed in the explanations that I flinched when biting into the green fruit. The piece of produce was hard, and my thoughtless approach had triggered a wave of pain.
Dion’s head shot around at the sound. Following my glower that was directed at the apple, he frowned before snatching it away from me. I shifted to glare at him, but my expression softened as he rummaged for a pocket knife, and once he’d found one, he cut the fruit into small pieces. Stunned by his small act of kindness, I received my food back—after Dion had stolen one bite, but I was fine with that—and gave him a shy smile before turning my attention back to Fig.
“Ireas has magic connected to the element of light. Illuminating the darkness, for example, or creating bright orbs that shine for a few hours so others can use them. But that’s only the basics—his specialty allows him to slow down the effects of injuries or sicknesses in vegetation, animals, and humans. He can’t magically heal, but he can win time to find the right treatment.”
I was baffled and amazed, and the piece of apple that I was chewing almost dropped out of my mouth. I quickly swallowed the bite down and considered the talents of theyoung medic, who smiled shyly at me. “That’s extremely useful!”
“Sometimes. Rarely. But in addition to my magical talent, it’s my goal to know as much about emergency care and non-magical treatment as possible. By the way, I’d like to examine your injuries later. Just to be safe.”
I nodded to him as I pondered on how much these men were telling me, and I wondered if it was because of my potential involvement in the whole ominous dream affair. Gods, that sounded ridiculous even when I just thought about it.
“I can control fire,” Thain chimed in and threw a handful of bright blazing flames from his palm into the burning pit.
Ducking and then calming my racing heart, I turned my head away from the campfire that was flickering dangerously after the redhead’s stunt.
“I’m also extremely successful with the ladiesandthe gentlemen. So, if you ever want to play with any kind of fire, come find me.” Thain winked at me once more, and I saw Dion glowering at the redhead. By now, it was more than obvious that those two weren’t on good terms, and I wondered if it’d always been the case.
Thain made a carefree impression on me, but the suspicion that he was shallow when it came to flirting was there. I couldn’t help but speculate if he was just all talk or indeed some kind of philanderer.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather not,” I said, and Thain clutched his chest, feigning a heart attack, which made me laugh.
“You wound me, sweetheart.”
Before Thain was able to continue with his sassy act, Dion growled. Loud. “That’s enough, Thain.We’re trying to be serious here.”
“Here we go again,” Ireas mumbled, exasperated as if these two were at each other’s throats regularly, and they possibly were, considering the other men’s reactions.
Fig narrowed his eyes. “Dion, Thain, keep it together. I’ve had enough of your squabbling.”
Dion’s scowl was impressive, and from the daggers he stared, it was clear he wanted to retaliate, but a warning glance from Antas silenced him before he could even start. The older man had to tell me his trick.
As if nothing had happened, Fig returned to the original subject. “You’re already aware of Dion’s ability to manipulate darkness and shadows. As you’ll spend quite some time together in the next few days, he can tell you more about what he’s able to do himself.”
I nodded, although I’d rather bite my tongue off before asking Dion about his talents again. I could go without further demonstrations, but could my curiosity cope?
Fig went on. “I have some earth magic that helps me fight. My talent allows me to wield the ground itself, and the power aids me to stand upright while trying to throw my opponents off balance. Also, if I wanted, I could cause a very localized earthquake, but it would exhaust me for a few days.”
“So you don’t have infinite resources of magical power?”
“No, every Wielder has their unique capacity. Deplete your power, and you’ll have to recover before you canwield again. Use too much, and you will enter a state we call magical burnout. If you’re unlucky, you won’t be able to recover from a burnout, and more than a few have died because of it. It’s imperative that Wielder learn where their limits lie before everything else. But enough of that. We have a few more important things to go over. Just to be sure, you do understand that you’ll accompany us, Nayana?”