Chapter 12
We spent the next month inside the cave in the cave, for the first week Pera was still in shock and was barely doing anything other than sleeping, I had to force feed her a few times so she didn't starve to death.
After that week, she started becoming active again, returning to her usual cheerful self. She started pestering me about my powers. It started small, one day when I woke up, she was already awake, so she asked me with the most nonchalant voice, "can you use your powers again?" she asked it as if she was asking for a cup of water. I was so caught off guard that I almost dropped the plate of food I was preparing. So, I just brushed her of and continued as if nothing happened, but in truth I was afraid, I was afraid that I might hurt her by accident. This continued for a while, and every time I just changed the subject trying not to convey neither the nervousness and fear that I was feeling nor, the fear of myself and the idea of leaving her so I don't hurt her or at the least becoming a hermit that never leaves the cave. At the end of the second week, we decided to climb for a change of scenery, after eating and talking we sat in comfortable silence for a while when suddenly Pera said, "you know you won't hurt me right?"
I didn't know how to respond to that so I just stayed silent, so she continued, "I mean with your powers, you cannot hurt me with them if that is what you are afraid of."
This time I knew I couldn't avoid talking about this, so while I collected my thoughts Pera stayed silent waiting for me to answer her. After a couple of minutes of silence, I laid my head in her lap and sighed, after a couple more heartbeats where she put her hands in my hair and started caressing them I answered her the nervousness and the fear that I was bottling up causing my voice to crack, "how can you be so sure? You saw what I did to them, you saw how quickly I killed them, there was nothing left of them, not even the plants and animals survived… To be honest I don't know how you survived, at that time I was so angry that all I thought about was erasing them from the face of the planet, and I have no idea why you were not affected. No idea why I didn't kill you to," after I said that I realized how it sounded so I continued hurriedly, "don't get me wrong, I am glad you are alive, more than glad. If you hadn't survived, I wouldn't have had the will to continue living in this cruel world without you. But I am afraid of next time, maybe I wake up from a nightmare and find out that I had killed you by accident, or I stub my toe and release my powers by mistake… Ever since then my powers seem to be begging to jump out, to claim more souls."
After listening to me rant without interrupting me Pera stopped brushing my hair and smacked the back of my head, "oww" I shouted indignant, but she didn't care and pulled my head back into her lap before speaking.
"You idiot, you think you can get rid of me this easily." Before I could respond she continued, "I know why you didn't kill me, it is quite easy to guess but that big idiot head of yours always thinks in extremes. It's simple you didn't want to kill me, you wanted to protect me, so you did just that. You powers responded to your wishes, to your will. So if I ever need to be afraid of you, it is now, when you are doubting yourself, giving your power free reign inside of you instead of controlling it. You are your powers Kath, you can't separate the two of you, you are your powers and your powers are you. So stop moping around and go train the damn thing to respond to your command."
At that rebuke I realized how foolish I had been, if my powers could act without my says so why had they never done so before? And I saw the wisdom in what she said, I must stop being afraid of myself, and the best way to do that is to train myself to harness the powers that are growing inside of me. So I replied with three words as if I was responding to a drill sergeant and even gave a mock salute, "Yes, ma'am, Yes."
At that she gave me another playful smack on the back of the head and I had one of the most restful sleep I had since the day I unleased my powers and I truly knew what they could do. And the warmth radiating from Pera helped tremendously, as if all the love she held for me was safeguarding me form the coldness of death emanating from my powers.
The next day Pera also told me she wanted me to train her to use the sword or a dagger to at least be able to protect herself if she found herself in another situation like the one we had just gone through. So we started to train Pera with the sword and I with my powers. I started big as it was harder to control my powers the more I compressed them, so I started with sending my powers through branches and trying to lessen the intensity so it just withers instead of being erased. It was easier than expected, it was as if there was a door inside of me and when I used it before I had kicked it open and let everything inside rush out as if from a broken dam. So, I started opening the door halfway through trying to stop the door from opening up all the way and causing my powers to rush through, and the smaller the opening the more a toll it took on my mind. Fortunately, since I was spending most of my time joined with Murtok my mental facilities had become so much stronger than most, that if compared to the average person they would be an ant in front of me and the smartest man and infant at worst and a ten year old at best. So this training of the intensity of the flow took me only a week to master.
The next part was to control the flow after it leaves my body, the most I was able to accomplish in the last week we had planned to seclude ourselves from the rest of the world is the ability to stop power from seeping from my every pore and being able to control were the flow exits from but no more.
After all of this happened, we decided to go back down the mountain and to the house that we were supposed to buy considering it to be safe enough and that even if they figured out how the nobles which would be impossible, they wouldn't see us as threats. So, we went in search of Darius and our new home.
When we entered the shop, he was with a customer and gestured us to wait until he finished his business before speaking. The moment the customer was out of the shop he yelled, "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER WHERE WERER THE BOTH OF YOU," calming himself a bit more he continued, "a whole month you have been gone, do you understand, a MONTH."
With that he seemed to tire myself out so I spoke, "something unavoidable came up and we were not able to come for a month sorry we caused you to worry."
Pera continued with puppy eyes, "but more importantly what happened to the shop, did you buy it or do we have to continue to looking for another place?"
Pride oozing out of him Darius replied, "who do you think you big brother is," at this we shared a look as if saying to each other what is this lunatic talking about, and he must have seen us exchange the look, so he coughed before continuing, "as I was saying, who do you think I am. Of course I managed to buy it, and I was even able to put it in your names without you both having to show your mark. So the paperwork is complete and you can thank me for that," he finished handing each of us a key, a set of paperwork of ownership of the shop for each of us, and of course our identification paper Murtok gave him when he visited.
We thanked him and told him that we would have a small gathering of friends after we settled down and that he would be welcome to come by after we officially set the date and invited everyone.
After leaving we could barely hold back so we ran all the way back to our new house. When we got back we started setting everything up and began to take stock of the things we have and the things we don't. After that we spent about two hours cleaning the house and the shop front. After we finished cleaning, we planned to go and buy some furniture as the previous owner left only the shop intact and they took most of the furniture. So, we went to the market and ordered all everything we wanted and since we had money to spare, as we bought the house not with our savings, we ordered the best beds we had ever slept on, and even ordered a tub big enough for us to bath in, since I always stored a ton of water in my portals. After we finished buying furniture we went and bought the rest of the supplies that we would need from cook ware to grains. We could have stolen them but we wanted to start a new life a life were we wouldn't have to worry about others trying to come after us, so we decided that we would not do anything illegal again and live as peacefully as possible before we were ready to start travelling the world.
We went back home and waited until just before the sun set for the furniture to be delivered, they set them down in the shop and then left. So, we spent a couple more hours moving everything in place. We were exhausted after we finished so each of us went straight to their bed. The next day I woke up feeling strange, not knowing where I had slept like all the other days I slept on the street, but then the memories returned and I smiled happily, just then I felt a weight on my arm, so looking down I saw Pera sleeping next to me, and when she felt me wake up she tightened her hold on me and buried her face in my chest. I stayed still in the bed not wanting to wake her up, luckily just ten minutes after I woke up, so did she. I saw that she was still confused so I spoke up, "wake up, sleepy head, you haven't slept next to me since we first met did something happen."
When she realized what I had said and where she was, she blushed cutely and buried her head in my chest in embarrassment. She stayed like this for about ten minutes when she gathered her courage and said, "I just felt like this if you don't like it the I will be going," trying to get out of bed.
But I felt that there was something on her mind so I pulled her back and hugged her to my chest saying, "I know you have something weighing on your mind, but never forget I am always here. So, talk to me, even if it something silly I swear not to laugh."
She looked up at me, blushed until her ears turned red and then hid her face in my chest and mumbled into my chest with a voice that barley reached my ears, "in the cave it felt that you are always there and that there was no place that you could go that I wouldn't know about… but here its open, I know it doesn't make sense but I woke up in the middle of the nigh afraid that you wouldn't be here so I just came to check on you and fell asleep by mistake."
Brushing my hand over her back to comfort her I said, "it's okay, know that I will never leave, and you are welcome to sleep with me anytime you want." We spent the rest of the morning in bed talking to each other about our plans for the future and what we should do about the shop.
When we got up we went to visit Darius and told him we were ready to start opening the shop, so he sent some stock for us. The next week we started getting everything ready, and even had some people come and buy some odds and pieces. Then we invited the few people that we knew for a small celebration.
We prepared the food and waited, the first to arrive were some people we got to know in the various jobs we did in the slums outside the city and they congratulated without envy even though their situation is much worse than ours now. Darius came, a couple of the customers and neighbors also came by to see what the commotion was about and stayed for the food and company. Surprisingly, even Vos, who I sent him an invite but never expected him to come, came with his entire family. I introduced Pera to them and them to Pera. I asked him how he was able to come visit us as I knew he was busy, he answered, "my wife almost tore my ear dragging me here. She wanted to visit you since you left, but since she didn't know where you were she couldn't. So expect her to come from time to time now that you have a house."
I laughed at this and thanked his wife, then Vos led me to quite corner and seriously said, "I am not as active as I was in the past up here, but my name still carries face. So, if you ever get in trouble even with nobles just mention my name and send me a message and they should give you some face… I know what happened on the hill outside the city, I don't know how it was caused and I don't know the reason, but I know you, and I think you are the most likely person to have caused that. I am not asking you to give me answers, but I want you to know that if anything happens in the future you can come to me and I will help you to the best of my abilities."
This gesture touched me so I thanked him profusely and assured him if I am ever in trouble, I would not be polite and seek his help. He seemed happy with my answer and we rejoined the party. The party continued well into the night when everyone left, so we cleaned up and went to sleep with the knowledge of a new life in front of us filled with friends and good times.
How I wish we could have lived that life, but circumstances changed the course of our life. We found ourselves surrounded him chaos clinging to any semblance of order left. But I will not spoil the rest of this diary in these musings of mine, and will let you to continue reading.