Chapter 36: Terra

Someone's talking to me, saying words I don't understand, at least, not at first.

Then I recognize one of them, and I know the voice. It's a voice I've always known, since the beginning. No, wait, I only met him a few days ago.

“J,” I croak. I clear my voice. “Jesse?” I sit up and rub my eyes. When I open them, I can see him, my brother. He looks relieved when he grins at me.

His smile makes me happy.

“You're okay.” He leans over and squeezes my hand. I look around at a room that isn’t my own. Or at least, it’s not the same room Jesse said was my old room a day ago. Where am I? There are books everywhere, on shelves filling every wall. Books stacked on chests, and in some places, in piles on the floor. I'm lying on a cot in the middle of thousands of books while two people I've never seen hover over me. They're both tall, dark-skinned, and long-haired. Now that I focus on them, I realize I can't tell them apart. They look exactly the same, like mirror images of one other.

I shake my head. Maybe I'm seeing double. I shake it again, but they're still both there. I notice small things, then. Like their brightly colored clothing and their detailed leather boots. They're Healers, presumably here because I was badly injured.

“She's awake?”

I turn my head and see someone else I recognize. Duncan Sterling turns toward me. “I'm delighted to see your eyes open.”

I force a smile. “Where exactly am I?”

Duncan strides nearer and places a hand on the shoulder of each of the two identical men. They smile at him and even their smiles look the same, toothy and wide. “I’d like to introduce you to Lansing and Lincoln. They're my personal Healers. They worked with a pair of the Unit's Healers, who left a few minutes ago, to bring you back from the brink. You gave us all quite a scare there, but we're glad to have you back.”

Healers live here and work for my dad? Bizarre. Lucky for me, though. When I reach down to my stomach, my hands feel only smooth skin. No slice wound, no bleeding hole. I look up at Lincoln and Lansing. “Are you both alright?”

“I'm Lincoln,” the man on the left says. He purses his lips. “I won't lie. Healing you hurt, but we're both fine now. Passing your injuries on to three others worked. No one’s badly injured anymore.”

“Thank you,” I say. “I'm sorry to have caused you pain.” I want to ask them more questions, or send a message to Martin, but not in front of my new family. It feels wrong somehow, discussing the Healers’ practices in front of outsiders. And they might refuse to answer, because now I'm an outsider, too.

Jesse tosses me a pile of clothing and takes a step toward the door. “If you feel up to it, you can get dressed and we can get out of here. I'm sure they'd like their study back.”

“Oh,” I say. “Yes, I'll get changed and we can leave. Of course.”

The men all step out while I change into new clothes. Clothes that haven't been hacked to bits and aren't covered in blood. I notice my hair's loose, and my new clothes are a simple but well-made pair of pants and a cotton top.

I'm surprised when I exit that only Jesse's waiting for me. “Where'd they go?”

“Dad has a lot to do now, you know, in light of yesterday.”

I shake my head. “I don't know. What's going on?”

“I forgot. You passed out before the messenger arrived.” He sighs. “The Followers of Amun knew you'd been found, but their force finally reached their headquarters and had time to deliberate, I guess. Their leader, Devlin Rochester, has declared war.”

“This is bad, right?”

“It's not good, but it’s not unexpected.” He tilts his head a bit to the side. “Do you remember anything that happened after you were stabbed? Or maybe it was while you were stabbed. I’m not totally sure.”

I purse my lips and try to think. Kahn was angry, and I’m sure Duncan and Jesse were upset. Did they fight?

“Nothing at all?” Jesse peers at me with a strange expression on his face.

“Not really. I was so tired at the end, instead of being able to feel things around me, everything seemed to be shaking. Things looked—” I grasp for a word to explain it. “—insubstantial, like the world wasn't really made up of objects and things, but energy, or maybe filaments of, I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I sound insane.”

“Actually, Dad's going to want to hear this, too. He's waiting for us with food. I imagine you could eat.”

Hunger pangs rip through my stomach, right on cue. “I’m starving, actually.”

Jesse grins. “Predictable. Lifting uses the same energy as if you did everything yourself. So the things you Lift and fling around, it's like you carried them around, physiologically speaking. You should dramatically increase your own intake. Your body needs energy, and it’ll be stronger for it.” He pokes my bony arm. “Clearly you haven’t been eating enough.”

That explains why I'm always so hungry, and possibly my exhaustion last night. Jesse starts down the hall, and I follow.

When we walk through the door into the dining room, Duncan stands. “Walking around is a good sign. How do you feel?”

“Fine,” I say.

“Can you Lift anything this morning?” Duncan looks nervous. “Or are you wiped out?”

“Oh, sure.” I Lift a plate and float it over to my hands. “Why?”

“Astonishing,” he says. “What has Jesse told you?”

“That we’re at war. I’m sorry to hear it.” Sorrier to have caused it.

“Actually, our scouts tell me that Amun’s main force is almost here,” Duncan says. “Apparently Devlin moved the bulk of his army to an area just south of the river as soon as he heard a rumor about you. He's been waiting there, hiding in plain sight while several mounted groups like the one that almost caught you searched.”

“And they all want me dead?”

He shrugs. “It’s unclear. There are rumors that Devlin’s pushing for capture instead. Whether that’s to discover information first, or whether he really means to spare you, is unclear.”

“Wait,” Jesse says. “What?”

“How do you know?” I ask.

Duncan shrugs. “Spies. Devlin has spies everywhere. Every time I do or say something that upsets anyone, or when another Unit Leader does, spies are born. They’re here among us, but their hearts aren't with us. It works both ways of course, which is how I discovered that Devlin may have shifted toward planning to capture you. You should know that even if that is his plan, it’s not a popular position among the Followers of Amun.”

“But it’s progress,” Jesse says. “Right?” He sits down at the table next to Duncan and starts scooping food onto his plate, almost like nothing's wrong.

“What does it all mean?”

“It means you should eat up,” Duncan says. “War is here.”

Jesse smiles. “Stop being melodramatic, Dad. This has been coming for years. There were wars before Alora came, and there will be wars after we’re all gone. Besides, you're made for war. You've been longing to take a swing at Devlin ever since he moved to Rochester.”

Duncan swallows his eggs. “That’s true. Our two factions have disagreed fundamentally for hundreds of years.” He turns to me. “You're not the reason for all this, you know. You're the culmination of a prophecy that's dangled over our heads like an axe waiting to fall for as long as anyone can remember, but it’s divided us all from the start.”

“I’m not sure how, honestly.”

“People are born looking for something to argue over, but I think it’s more than that,” Jesse says. “It’s about women and their role on Terra.”

Duncan nods. “We never viewed the coming of the Warden as signaling destruction. It’s simply the next step—and when she comes, that’s the sign that Mother Terra is ready for that step. But the Followers of Amun.” He takes a bite and chews.

I wait, but not very patiently.

“You should eat,” Jesse says. “It’s shaping up to be a busy day, and if you can Lift, you should start training.”

I grab a plate and start to load it up, but I’m not letting Duncan off the hook. I plonk it down on the table and stare at him. “Amun’s followers felt that women were no better than animals. We bear children, nothing more.”

“They felt that keeping women under their thumb would prevent the ‘end’ foretold. That the Warden could be halted, and Terra kept safe.”

“Safe from what?” Jesse asks. “That’s what I want to know.”

“People in power will always fear any shift in that power.” Duncan stares out the window.

“But you’re in power,” I say. “And you support keeping the Warden alive.”

“I’m also your father,” he says. “I wonder if I’d feel the same if I weren’t.”

“What?” Jesse asks. “Are you kidding?”

Duncan shrugs. “I hope I would make the right decision either way, and I’ve always seen myself as more of a steward and a protector than an overlord.”

“What about the other Unit Leaders?” Jesse asks. “What are they saying?”

“They’re worried about the last line of the prophecy,” he says.

“Which is?” I can’t quite recall.

Duncan’s eyes still gaze out the window, at the forest ahead of the city. “As Terra crumbles, the world will begin anew.”

Hardly an encouraging prediction, I’ll admit. I lean back in my chair. “I don't see how I can end anything.”

Duncan stares pointedly at the food on my plate. Croissants, ham, eggs, toast, jam, butter, cheese. “Eat. You'll need it.” He stuffs another bite in his mouth, chews, and swallows. “I realized something yesterday, as you tore through all our best warriors. You may have been raised away from us. You may not be able to throw a single decent punch. And in the end, that may not even matter.”

Jesse’s brow furrows. “I thought she did pretty well.”

Duncan's eyebrows shoot up. “Pretty well? I've never seen anyone ascend from nothing to fourth in a single day. Not you, not Kahn, no one. And she had no training, not in fighting, or in Lifting, not a lick. Yes, I’d say she did pretty well.”

“So you think that I'm different?” I ask. “Doomed to end the world?”

“I think that after yesterday's. . .anomaly, we should be prepared. You need training, and we need to know the extent of what you can do.”

Wait, anomaly? Does he mean how well I did at the Ascension?

“Speaking of.” Jesse says. “Alora, what do you remember about yesterday, right before you passed out? You said things were shaking around you?”

“I got sliced and then stabbed,” I say. “It hurt pretty bad, and things got fuzzy. Yeah, it almost felt like stuff around me was wobbling.”

“Before the stabbing, but after the slice, in the seconds before Stefan ran you through, do you remember doing anything?” Jesse’s eyes are intense. “Because it certainly looked like you were completely drained before that.”

“I was so tired that I lost control of the Bindings in my hair. That's never happened before, not ever. I used to think Bindings were like glue,” I explain. “Once applied, they just stayed. Jesse told me that’s not right, but it’s what I thought. I’ve never been that tired, that I couldn’t hold my hair back.”

“Do you remember doing anything strange?” Duncan asks. “Anything at all?”

“Like what?” I narrow my eyes at him.

“Like Lifting everything in a fifty-foot radius?” Jesse asks. “All three of the arenas, the people standing around, flagstones as big as my head? Individual blades of grass?”

I don't even understand what he's asking. “I was losing control. I can always feel the objects and people around me. I remember feeling for them, wanting to focus on something. But when I tried to focus, I couldn't. My attention just spread and spread, like butter on hot toast. The harder I pushed, the further my focus expanded until I could sense everything in the courtyard.”

Jesse and Duncan share a look I don’t understand.

Jesse finally asks, “Didn't you wonder why Stefan ran you through, instead of holding that sword to your throat until the count of three?”

I stand up and brace my hands on the table. “Obviously not. I figured maybe he hated me. I hacked through his friend’s hamstrings. Maybe he thought I deserved it.” Maybe I agree with him.

Jesse stands. “Come over here. I want to show you something.”

I glance down at my food. I haven’t eaten much, but I’m sure I can come back. I follow Jesse to the window and look down on the courtyard below.

It's wrecked.

The main ring where I fought every match is tilted to one side, a large crack zigging and zagging down the right side. The flagstones that ran all around it in a perfect circle have been pulled out and are scattered around in piles on the ground. The grass has been pulled up by the roots in a large, perfectly formed circle around the arena. There’s a boot wedged partially underneath a rock. Discarded bags.

Is Jesse saying that somehow I did all of that? After all my fights? There must be some other answer. I was completely exhausted. I couldn't have Lifted a thing, or I'd surely have used my strength to keep Stefan from disemboweling me.

I walk back to the table and sit down without saying a word.

“I'm guessing you don't remember doing any of that?” Jesse asks.

“It couldn’t have been me.”

“Stefan didn't mean to impale you, but the entire ring tilted and his sword just went sideways.”

I groan. “How could that happen? I have a lot of strength, but I know my limits. I couldn't have done that, not during the fight with Stefan. I was too drained.”

“I think you may have hidden reserves you've never used.” Duncan stands, his plate empty. “As I said, I have a lot to do. Evacuate the city, call in all the troops the other Unit Leaders can spare, and prepare our stores, but I've already made arrangements—”

“For Jesse to train me?” I ask.

Duncan says, “I need Jesse with me. The townsfolk love him and the nobles trust him. Besides, he's only been here a year. You need someone with a little more experience.”

At the sound of boot steps in the hallway, my heart lurches. Someone with more experience than Jesse?

As I feared, Kahn strides through the open doorway.