Soul Song ~ Book One

Chapter Thirty-One

"There was a woman...dark skinned...spoke in a strange manner. Her name was Vaneesh. She called herself a priestess. We allowed her to reside with us, for a time, although she gave us all a bad feeling. Magiks were with her, but they were dark...uncompromising. Not the light Magiks we share." Grandmother frowned as she remembered. "Incidents began happening. People went missing. We found them, only...it was too late. They were...different. They had been used to create evil, dark Magiks; such as had never been seen before. As the Healers and Elders were not bonded to each other as they should be, we didn't have the strength to fight her. We were finally able to kill her, but not before she set her demon Magiks upon the people. There were casualties."

Shock mirrored on each of the three silent faces. Damien broke the silence first.

"Why didn't they drive her out before she became powerful?" he asked.

"We did not know what she was." Grandmother lowered her eyes. "But the shame is ours. Had we been righteous, the she-devil would not have had the ability to harm us. Plague raged after her death. As though her death caused it." Grandmother rubbed her palms on her knees, lost in thought. "Oddly, after Vaneesh was killed, there was an Elder by the name of Jerum who was found. He was just a child, walking mindlessly in the forest. No one has been able to find what happened to him or his parents."

Dania and Mirabella glanced at each other. Mirabella shrugged her shoulders.

"Why are the Elders and Healers not bonded? Before this horrible thing the Elders did, I mean. Why did the Elders lose a portion of their power?" Dania asked.

"It is said, many generations ago, there was a calamity. A Healer, Elyssa was it?" Grandmother scrunched up her face trying to remember. "Yes, I think that's what her name was. She was one of the First."

"First?" Damien asked.

"Of course," Grandmother smiled. "We do have beginnings. This Healer, she was a Memory Keeper. She used the Magiks in such a way as to divide the Elders and Healers."

"Why?" Dania asked. Each answer opened up so many more questions. "And what is a Memory Keeper?"

"No one knows why she did it. The records she kept are long gone." Grandmother's eyes seemed as though she were looking into a far off time. "So much is lost. Suffice it to say, she blended Magiks in a terrible way, which is probably how Klellen knew how to do it. He must have found a text. When they did this evil thing, whatever it was, the Magiks were suppressed. Over the generations, they have been able to regain a paltry amount of Magiks. But they are still but a shadow of what they were before. The Magiks demand a way to express themselves. If they can't, they could create a way, like you, Dania."

Dania nodded. Mirabella had said as much.

"How do the Elders get back their full abilities?" Damien asked.

"They would have to be righteous again." Grandmother sighed. "We Healers have prayed to the Sources for that day to come swiftly. So much evil has been done in the past generations. There are those Elders who fled when Klellen was Changing them, and they reside in the forest. But, so much animosity already existed between the Healers and Elders, long before Klellen."

"When they melded the Magiks before, were they like us?" Dania gestured to herself and Damien. "Changed Ones?"

Grandmother shook her head.

"What happened?"

"No one is quite certain. Although, it is said the Sources themselves were angry at Their children and They removed the Magiks from all."

"Where are these Sources now?" Dania demanded. "Why have They not intervened this time?"

Grandmother studied Dania a moment. "Sometimes, we must be responsible for our own actions. This time, a sacrifice of one here must happen. Someone must give up something most dear to them to save the lives of all the others. That person must seek out Plague, and Plague will tell them what they must do."