CHRONICLES OF THE LOST ORACLE: BOOK ONE - SHADOWS

chapter seven

"Are you a telepath?" I asked as we had teleported back to the camp.

"No." he said simply.

"But back there when you told me to behave..." I protested but he cut me off.

"I didn't go into your mind, I let you into mine."

"But I wasn't trying to read your mind."

"Sweetheart, even when you are not consciously thinking about it you are always trying to read the mind of the person closest to you." he explain and I realized that, that was the reason I was now able to read almost every mind in the camp at will, except of course for Xavior's. It still however did not explain how he knew what I was thinking.

"If you're not a telepath then how..." he cut me of again.

"Because I read your body language." he said and walked away.

In the darkest hour of the night I stood once again alone on the training grounds. Five more months had passed and had kept the form I had taken the day Xavior and I went to see Diego. I was training hard but was beginning to reach a plateau in my powers. Xavior said there was a way to get passed it but it required a sacrifice on my part. I had become so obsessed with gaining power that in my mind there was no sacrifice to great or to small as long as I could become more powerful.

I stood in the darkness thinking about everything I had learned so far. Power came in five levels and there was five stages to each level. According to Xavior I had reach level three stage three in all but one power. Mind control was one power I found extremely difficult to utilize.

Without warning I started to gasp for breath. I found myself crouching down and clutching my chest in pain. I was crying. I had no idea what was bringing this on. I tried to control my emotions but the more I did the more hysterical I became.

"Catch." Xavior's voice was behind me. I jerked up, turned and caught the small bag he had tossed to me.

"What! You want me to take a break again. I just took one remember." I was shouting for no reason.

"Happy birthday." was all he said.

"H - How did you know?" I was confused. I had not told anyone when my birthday was.

"I make it my business to know. Just open the bag." he said gently. The bag contained a single coin. It wasn't gold or silver or ever bronze. It was some other kind of metal I had never seen before. I examined the coin and then rolled it from one finger to another and back again. "It's Azeltec." he said.

"I know." I felt a strange sensation come over me, like me whole body was being engulfed by the surrounding darkness. I wanted to go home. "Thanks." I said and closed my eyes, letting the darkness take me.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing under a tree just outside an open field. It was still dark but I could just make out some houses standing not too far away. It looked like a village. It took me a few minutes before I realized I was standing under a tree in the field used as a park playground right outside my village. I was home.

How did I get here? I surely did not teleport. I can't and besides this felt different. Could Xavior have done this? No, why would he? I put the questions out of my mind. I was home. What did it matter how I got here. I would ask Xavior about it later.

Dawn broke and life came over the village. In a house on the far side near the forest remained quiet. It was well after sunrise before a man, a woman and two teenagers emerge into the front yard. Arthus Atera was carrying a picnic basket with a blanket neatly folded on top in one hand and with the other was holding his wife, Illion's hand. The two teenagers was eagerly urging their parents to hurry up.