Domai Selindria and Michael sat down on the grass next to his slumbering companions. Every few minutes, one of the still forms would twitch or emit a small sound of displeasure.
"Is there any way that we can wake them?" Michael asked hopefully, his brow creased in concern.
Domai Selindria shook her head. "The only thing that could wake them would not be finished until they were already awake anyway."
"So where do we start?" Michael asked tentatively. "I thought Aetherborn were only born every ten centuries or so."
Domai Selindria studied him silently with her cat-like eyes, as if she were weighing him mentally, deciding how much to tell him. She absently brushed a lock of stray hair back behind her ear and cleared her throat before beginning.
"Aetherborn are an enigma and always have been," Domai Selindria began with a small frown. "No one knows very much about it. There is no pattern or order to the way it works. Sometimes five Aetherborn manifest in a hundred years and other times there have been as many as a thousand years between a single one. You are the second living that I know about."
"There's more, isn't there?" Michael asked with a sudden insight. "The Elders would not have been acting the way they were if they just thought I was Aetherborn."
Again, Domai Selindria looked like she was deciding how much to tell him. "According to the records, most Aetherborn have nothing more than extra physical abilities and sixth senses. You seem to have the ability to control things with your aeri that would be far too difficult for anyone else to do without the aid of a compound. However, you do not have any control over it. It seems to be instinctive, just like the physical attributes that characterize Aetherborn. Instead of having a burst of strength or speed or some other physical attribute, you have an outburst of power from your aeri. There are some other things going on that I do not really understand, but the thing that has some of the Elders worried is the possibility you will have an outburst of temper and unleash a tidal wave of power that could be very destructive. I think that is rubbish. Your instincts would guide you to protect yourself from whatever was harming you, not lash out blindly." Pausing, Domai Selindria appraised him with a penetrating gaze. "How do you feel about all of this?"
Michael pondered the question, absently watching a dandelion bob around in the light breeze. Something did not fit. He could not put his finger on it, but there was definitely something missing.
"I don't know," Michael replied slowly. "I will have to think about it. I think we are overlooking something." Michael plucked the dandelion from the ground and blew the seeds away. The seeds drifted across the field on the gentle breeze, with the sun sparkling off them. Noticing that the sun was moving toward the western horizon, Michael realized that a lot of time had passed already.
"Do you think they will wake soon?" Michael asked with another concerned glance at the writhing trio.
"They will start stirring as soon as the sun sets," Domai Selindria assured him, glancing at the lowering sun. "Snake Vines harvest their energy from sunlight. The venom from Snake Vine will keep a victim down until it loses its power source. Taking them into a deep cave would also be a way to wake them, but that would be more effort than necessary, as the sun will set soon."
As the sun crept lower, a middle-aged man that Michael did not recognize approached them. He wore the white robes of an Elder's Apprentice, with the emblem of a staff crossing a sword on the breast. The emblem signified that one day he would be an Elder on the Defense Council.
"Domai Selindria, your presence has been requested at the Citadel," the newcomer announced while looking at the slumbering youths curiously.
Gracefully rising from her cross-legged position, Domai Selindria looked down at Michael. "Will you be alright watching over them alone until they wake?"
Michael nodded silently, watching Leanne twist on the ground with a small crease of frustration on her forehead.
"Then I will see you tomorrow morning," she told him, turning and gliding after the man who had brought the summons.
Wondering what it would be like to be in the same room with the Foresight Stone, Michael found himself once again trying to make sense of the short series of events that had so suddenly interrupted their normal lives.
* * *
Shalay's eyes snapped open as she sucked in a large breath and exhaled it explosively. Slowly sitting up, she looked around and saw Thalian and Leanne lying next to her. She looked up at the wall where the vines had snared them.
I wonder if I could get my hands on some of this stuff? Shalay thought, shuddering slightly as she recalled the miserable nightmare she had of being trapped in an invisible cell.
"Are you alright?" a familiar voice asked from behind her. Startled, she spun around to see Michael watching her with a relieved expression on his face.
"I am now," Shalay mumbled, feeling groggy. "I had the most horrible dream."
"Let me guess," Michael said with a glance at Leanne and Thalian, "you were trapped in a cell."
"How did you know that?" Shalay asked in surprise, her green eyes narrowing.
"The Elders came out of their council to see us, along with some of the instructors," Michael replied darkly, still feeling an unreasonable anger at the Elders' imperious demands for an explanation. "They said the plant that attacked us was a Snake Vine and that its venom makes you dream of being trapped."
Feeling a rising panic, Shalay looked around quickly. "The Elders were here? They found us? Where are they now?"
"They have bigger fish to fry tonight," Michael replied shortly. "They went up to the citadel to hold another council."
"What happened?" she demanded, trying to make sense of her brother's cryptic answers.
Michael sighed. "It's going to take a while to explain, so let's wait for the other two to wake up before I start."
Shaking her head to clear the troubled remnants of her uneasy slumber, Shalay stood up and walked over to where Thalian lay. Kneeling over him, she began lightly smacking his cheek.
"Wake up, Thalian," she called down to him loudly. "Stop lazing about."
"That won't work—" Michael began, but was cut off as Thalian jerked upright with a shout.
"What happened?" Thalian demanded, echoing Shalay's earlier question.
"He won't tell us until Leanne wakes up," Shalay complained in exasperation.
"I don't want to repeat myself—" Michael began but cut off again as Leanne began to stir. Hurriedly, he knelt down beside her and helped her into a sitting position.
"Are you alright?" Michael asked Leanne, with what Shalay felt was a lot more concern than he had used when asking her. She pushed the sudden surge of possessiveness for her best friend away as she watched Michael hovering over Leanne.
"I think I'm going to have a headache, but other than that, I think I'm alright," she mumbled dazedly, pulling her long dark hair out of her face. Leaning against him, she sighed. The small curve of her lips showed a hint of a smile. Suddenly, she straightened and began looking him over. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt at all?"
"I'm fine," Michael assured her with a tight grin.
"And he was just getting ready to tell us what happened," Shalay prodded impatiently.
"Alright," Michael retorted in exasperation. "Calm down. I'm getting to it."
For the next few minutes, Michael retold the events that had taken place during their induced slumber, including his conversation with Domai Selindria and her theory that he was Aetherborn. When he finished, Shalay felt completely flabbergasted. Looking at her companions, she saw they looked how she felt. How could she have spent her whole life with him without noticing anything? He had always been so normal—almost too normal, aside from his inability to use his aeri. From the day he had learned to read, you would rarely see him without a book. Even on the practice field, where he spent the majority of his time learning combat, he always had a book resting nearby. And an intruder! Never before had someone slipped past the Guardians and wards set to keep intruders out of Avenry.
"Did you tell Domai Selindria about your vision?" Thalian asked curiously. His shirtsleeve had a small tear in it from his struggle with the Snake Vines, revealing a small laceration on his forearm.
"No, I was hoping to keep that between us," Michael replied dryly, with a meaningful glance at Shalay and Leanne.
"Oh," Thalian frowned, looking slightly abashed. "Just pretend that you didn't hear that," Thalian told the two women.
Shalay's eyebrow had already shot up and Leanne had automatically assumed the hands-on-hips stance.
"Why don't you go ahead and tell us what you are talking about right now and save us all a lot of arguing," Shalay suggested in a sweet voice that contrasted with the hardening of her large green eyes. "In the end, you will tell us."
Sighing, Michael gave Thalian a hard look and then turned back to Shalay and Leanne. "I have had some really odd dreams for the last couple of months. They are so vivid that they seem real. Last night when I was washing my face in the washbasin, I went into a kind of trance. I saw a stranger enter the west divide. It was as if I was the Guardian. I went to apprehend him and suddenly I was staring into the wash basin again."
Shalay and Leanne stared at him with a mixture of incredulity and skepticism.
"So, you think the stranger that Domai Selindria mentioned is the man you saw?" Leanne asked doubtfully, watching Michael carefully.
"It seems to stretch coincidence just a little too far, don't you think?" Thalian asked them pointedly. "I mean, what are the odds that Michael has what he thinks was a vision of someone breaching the barrier, and the next day we find out that someone has?"
Leanne was tapping her slender finger to her exquisite lips thoughtfully. "It does make sense," she agreed finally. She took a deep breath. "I guess the real question is, how did Michael have this vision? I have never heard of anything but the Foresight Stone that could predict the future. Could it be trying to work through him for some reason?"
Shalay felt her skepticism gradually fade. She had lived with Michael long enough to know what he was thinking by the expressions on his face. The uncertain, slightly strained look in his blue eyes made Shalay hesitate to question him further, before he had more time to think it out for himself. "I think we better continue this discussion tomorrow. Our parents are probably already looking for us, especially if they heard what happened. Maybe Michael will have another vision tonight. I will keep an eye on him tonight to see if anything odd is happening with his aeri."
Michael gave her a grateful nod, picking up the practice swords they had brought with them earlier. Thalian and Leanne nodded reluctantly, obviously wanting to discuss the subject further, but they followed her as she began walking toward the path at the other end of the practice yard.
"Do we still have time for our duel?" Thalian asked Michael hopefully.
"No, I don't think so," Shalay interjected quickly, not giving Michael a chance to answer. "We are probably already in trouble."
"Since when has that bothered you?" Thalian laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. He had such an infectious smile that she could not stop herself from joining his laughter.
"Very rarely," Shalay admitted, smiling at Thalian fondly. He brought his hand up to scratch his head, and, once again, Shalay saw the blood-stained tear in his shirt. Moving closer to him, Shalay took hold of his heavily muscled arm in her small hands. "We need to do something about this."
"It's just a scratch," Thalian muttered, trying to pull his arm away.
Shalay tightened her grip. "Scratches don't bleed like this." Shalay examined the cut closely, wincing at the sight. It ran vertically from his wrist to his elbow, with blood oozing out to saturate his sleeve. The cut did not seem very deep, certainly not deep enough to continue bleeding this long. "I think that something in the Snake Vine is preventing your body from healing it," Shalay said worriedly. "We need to see a healer."
"My mother should be able to fix it," Thalian assured her confidently. "She was a healer for several years before she began working for the Department of Agriculture."
"Let's get you home then," Shalay said briskly, picking up the pace. She reached out with her aeri, feeling his resonance. She could feel the warmth of his familiar resonance emanating from his body as strongly as ever. However, a slightly discordant overtone accompanied his resonance, as if there were two beings inside of Thalian's body.
Thalian looked at her questioningly when he saw the worried look on her face. "What is it?"
Shalay shook her head. "I don't know. Hopefully your mother will know more." Shalay decided that it was time to talk about something else before she worked herself into a frantic ball of worry.
"Has your dad made any progress with his study on the Altered Gardens losing their strength?" Shalay asked Leanne with forced curiosity.
"A little," she replied, taking Shalay's hint to talk about something else. "He thinks that the gardens are getting bigger and that whatever force makes them the way they are is spreading out over a larger radius, causing the force to thin."
"Bigger?" Michael's eyebrows shot up. "How does he figure that?"
"Thalian knows more about it than I do," Leanne replied, glancing at Thalian. He seemed to be lost in thought and did not respond until Shalay nudged him.
"What?" he asked, looking around at them.
Michael repeated the question as they turned down the street that led to the gates.
"Oh, that." Thalian's face brightened with interest. "There is a boundary marker where the normal landscape begins changing into the Altered Gardens that was put in place to keep people from accidentally walking into the Gardens and getting hurt. In the last five years, the effects of the Altered Garden have spread to about a mile beyond the Boundary Marker."
Michael stared at him in shock. "How is it that this has been kept so quiet? I would have thought that it would be the main topic of conversation. I mean our whole lifestyle depends on the Gardens."
"I have no idea," Thalian shrugged. "I thought it was just another project they were working on. I don't think we are in that much danger of losing the Gardens. The Gardens are probably just going through a cycle or something."
Michael shook his head. "I think we'd have a record if the Gardens had ever gone through a cycle before."
Waving to the two heavily armed watchmen that stood at the gates, the four of them continued up the path into the small forest outside of the city. Shalay was so preoccupied with this latest revelation about the Gardens that she did not even notice how tense the watchman were, and that the walls had twice as many watchman as usual.
When they arrived at the meadow where they met in the morning, Shalay turned to Thalian and hugged him tightly. "Take care of that cut as soon as you get home," she commanded firmly. "I am already going to be up all night worrying about it, but I will feel better if I know that you are taking it seriously."
Thalian stood looking startled as Shalay's small arms pulled him tightly against her, then hesitantly wrapped his uninjured arm around her. "I will have my mother look at it as soon as I walk in the door," he promised, squeezing her tightly.
"I'll make sure that he doesn't forget," Leanne told her, patting her back reassuringly.
Shalay released Thalian before she and Michael began making their way up the trail that led to their farm.
"Aetherborn, huh?" Shalay remarked with a raised eyebrow. "You know, I did a study on Aetherborn, and I don't think you are one. What you described doesn't sound like anything we have been taught, and from the reactions of the Elders, it doesn't sound like anything they have seen before either."
"I agree," Michael agreed quietly. "It just doesn't fit. It seems like they're grasping for something they are familiar with and trying to make it fit into that mold."
"Do you remember what this stranger from your vision looked like?" Shalay asked curiously.
"Yeah," Michael replied, frowning slightly. "He was taller than average and had light-colored hair with blue eyes. I remember the eyes, because they were the last thing I saw before the vision ended and I found myself staring in the washbasin. They were as intense as Domai Selindria's eyes, but the pupils weren't elongated. They seemed to radiate power. He was wearing normal-looking clothes, but they were all black."
"What did his face look like?" she probed, studying Michael's features as he retold the account. Deep concentration creased his face as he recalled the odd experience.
"I don't know, just a face," Michael shrugged. "I've never been good at describing the way people look."
"I will bet you could describe Leanne fairly well," she said archly. Shalay had never seen Michael so out of countenance as he had been for the last few months around Leanne. Leanne had always been beautiful, but Michael had thought of her as a friend for so long he had not realized just how beautiful she was until Shalay had asked him if he thought Leanne was pretty. Once the thought had entered his head, he seemed unable to focus on anything else.
Shalay had to repress a surge of jealousy as she thought of her beautiful friend. She had tried to ignore her growing attraction for her best friend for years, but it was growing more difficult by the day. She knew some things were just not meant to be.
"Well, that's a whole different story," Michael said dryly. "I enjoy looking at Leanne. I didn't particularly enjoy looking at this person."
"Just out of curiosity, are you ever going to make her an offering?" Shalay was watching him sideways, a hint of a smile on her generous lips.
"Every time I work myself up to it, I get these huge butterflies in my stomach, and I lose my nerve," Michael laughed sheepishly. "It doesn't make any sense. I mean, I have known her all of my life."
Shalay nodded her head knowingly. "It is uncharted territory for both of you, so it is only natural for you to be nervous. You do know she is completely besotted with you, don't you?"
"Really?" Michael asked, grinning broadly. "Do you think I should give her an offering? I am going to feel like the biggest fool in the world if she turns me down."
"Trust me," Shalay smiled mysteriously, ignoring the hollow feeling in her stomach.
* * *
The two of them reached the top of the rise where their house sat solidly on a rock foundation. Opening the gate to the front yard, Michael walked across the grass-covered ground where chickens wandered around pecking at seeds and made his way to the front door. He could see his mother working in the kitchen. The dull thud of the axe coming from the other side of the house meant his dad was in the back yard chopping firewood for the kitchen—Michael's nightly job. Trying to think of the best way to describe why they were so late, Michael walked through the front door. He wished that he had spent some of the time walking home trying to work on his explanation.
"We're home," Michael announced, as he walked through the sitting room to the kitchen.
His mother looked up at him, a searching expression in her dark eyes. She was wearing a plain apron and had her long, dark brown hair braided behind her back. She was a slender woman with a youthful face that could convey a wide range of emotions. She did not get angry like many of the other women he knew. She had always let them know what her expectations were. When you fell short of them, her expressive face would communicate all of the disappointment she felt. All in all, Michael would have preferred her to scold him. His father was also a strong believer in allowing a person's own guilt to punish them. He would never say a word of reproach, but he did not need to. His expression said it all.
Tonight was different, though. Instead of the cursory glance followed by the question of where they had been he had expected, his mother pulled him and Shalay into a close embrace and then called for their father to come in for dinner.
Michael glanced at Shalay, who stood looking dumbstruck at the unexpected welcoming.
"Is everything alright, Mom?" Michael asked nervously, sharing another look with Shalay.
"Yes, I suppose things are as well as they could be," she said, sounding resigned. "We'll talk more about it when your father is with us. Help me set the table while we're waiting for him, please. Wash your hands first."
Moving to the washbasin, Michael looked down, half expecting to go into another trance. His reflection stared back at him, wavering slightly. He washed his hands and began setting out the plates and cups while Shalay set out the silverware. Their father came in through the back door with an armload of firewood he set in the basket under the baking oven. As he straightened, he looked Michael in the face for several moments, as if he were trying to memorize his features.
"Let's all sit down, shall we?" their father suggested.
Starting to feel alarmed, Michael pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. Shalay sat down across from him, looking just as puzzled.
"I will just cut to the meat of this," their father said briskly. "The Elders were down to visit earlier. They told us about some of your eventful day. They also said that they spoke with the Foresight Stone. The Foresight Stone told them you and your sister were going to be leaving soon. They do not know when, where, or why. They just know that it will be very soon."
Michael was stunned. "Leave? For how long?"
His father looked like he was struggling with himself. Clearing his throat, he answered, "They were told you wouldn't be coming back. Ever."
Shalay slowly shook her head in disbelief. "They must have misunderstood. Where would we go? This is our home!"
"We don't know any of the details," their father replied, "but the Elders think that soon means within the next couple of days."
"Does this have anything to do with what happened this afternoon," Michael demanded, looking back and forth between his parents, "with the stranger that breached the boundary?"
Their parents shared a quick look and then his mother answered, "It might. The Foresight Stone has never spoken to the Elders like this before. It told them that you and your sister would be leaving as well as five others."
"Which others?" Shalay cut in before Michael could ask.
"It only named you two. They just referred to the others as chosen ones that would be required to leave. Your father and I have prepared travel packs for you that will be ready at all times if you have to leave in a hurry."
Shalay stared at her parents suspiciously. Why was their mother so ready to let them leave when she thought they would never return? Did she have that much faith in what the Foresight Stone could see?
"What else did the Foresight Stone tell them?" Shalay asked directly. "You are leaving something out. I think we have a right to know."
Their parents shared another quick glance. Their mother gave a small nod of her head and their father let out a sigh. "There is going to be a war," he said with another sigh. "Not for a couple of months, but we are supposed to finish training everyone before it starts."
Shalay looked numb from all of the shocks of the day. "Why would anyone want to attack us? What do we have that could possibly be worth starting a war?"
"It has nothing to do with that," their mother replied wearily. "Somehow they have found out about the Foresight Stone. Our people have only used it for choosing who will lead us and for warning us of things that will affect our home. It is capable of much more, though. We do not understand or know what else it can do. We suspect that the people that will be attacking the city know of other uses for it. Our people have sworn to protect the Foresight Stone since we were brought to the mountain country. Now we will get our chance."
"I want to stay and help," Michael announced firmly. "I am not just going to leave when our people will need us the most."
"Me too," Shalay added resolutely. "I have certain investments here that I won't be leaving."
"You two will be doing more for us by leaving than you could do here or I am sure the Foresight Stone wouldn't have shown you leaving," their mother declared just as determinedly.
"Besides," their father said, "the Foresight Stone predicts the future. It does not suggest or command. It has seen that you two will leave. That is what will happen."
They both looked at their father helplessly. He cleared his throat again.
"You are both the most gifted of your age. Rely on each other for help and work together. If you do, no obstacles can stand in your way. Come here, both of you," he said gruffly and opened his arms wide.
They both went over and embraced him. Shalay had tears in her eyes that she tried to hold back. Suddenly their mother was there, joining their embrace. First one tear and then another began to trickle down Shalay's cheeks. They stood there for some time, knowing this might be their last chance to show their love for each other. Outside, the nearly full moon rose over the tops of the mountains to illuminate the mountain city of Avenry.