Legacy

Chapter 12: Souls In Syllables

It had been three weeks since the Information Seminar. We hadn't heard any more news of the Maze. All we had was a collection of hazy rumours that dipped in and out of our social conscious: "I hear they'll be a ravyx in the Maze..." - "If you're first blood, you get disqualified." - "Do you think we can bring our own weapons in?" - "The Maze will be soon." - "The Maze will be tomorrow."

"The Maze will be tonight."

Whispers and spliced lies spiced every social circle, feeding fear and abating truth. No one had any real idea when the Maze was and what would be in it. The leaders were keeping all data on it locked down. Part of the Maze was the trials you would face inside. But another part was what you faced outside: the suspense, the fear, the c o n s t a n t waiting.

I was never a patient person.

"They should just get on with it," I grumbled to Alaysa, kicking a stray pebble off the dimly lit path. We were skirting through town to get to a mandatory "Bonding Session" (don't ask) - and naturally the subject of the Maze had swerved into our conversation. "I was ready for it about a month ago."

"Yeah, well-" Valeryan broke off as he stumbled, the patchy light causing him to slip on the uneven paving and gripped the nearest person for assistance. Naturally, it was me.

His hand wrapped around my shoulder, nearly dragging me down with him. Pain answered his touch as he almost wrenched my arm out its socket. I let out a curse, loosening his hold so that Val could hit the ground without bringing me too. He tumbled down, meeting the path with a smack! - an expletive ripping out of his mouth just on impact.

"Shit, Kat," he groaned, frozen on the ground as the pain jolted through him. "Thanks for nothing."

Alaysa laughed, awarding him a helping-hand while I stood back and grinned. My smile lessened as my shoulder twinged in pain. Val grimaced as he rose with Alaysa's guidance, gingerly extending his body. The light cast down on him so that the brown of his hair looked like burnished gold -

"You were dragging me down," I shrugged, nonchalantly, my mouth twitching in annoyance as a frisson of pain ran through my shoulder: side-effect from before. I rested against the wall, waiting for Valeryan to fully get back on his feet. "It devastated me inside, but I had to let you go."

"I bet it did," he said, angling his neck as he stretched it out. Absently his hand drifted out: his fingers trailing over my uncovered arm, lacing a pattern of heat up my shoulder. I could feel the spark of power under his fingertips: it gave my skin a warm buzz that gradually leeched away as his hand fell back to his side.

"Sorry," he apologised sheepishly. Valeryan could feel my pain right now - and I didn't mean in some bullshit, symbolic sense. That moment right then: he'd 'read' the surface of my skin, understanding that confused sharp spike of pain. It was what he could do: feel others' pain. Valeryan turned away, his face dark in that moment, light no longer illuminating him.

I understood. He might feel pain but he could never heal it - not until his healing powers kicked in after Final Training. We started up the path once more, silent now. I wondered how it would be like to feel other peoples' pain but never be able to help. All the physical slights of life and our frail bodies - but also the pressure unto pain of our own minds.

Val had never told me about understanding mental pain. Occasionally, he would read a person's pain - a fleeting slip of contact there, a warm presence masking an inside cold - but get more than he bargained for. He never told me what it was like to have someone else's pain slice through your mind.

To be honest, I'd never wanted to ask.

"So what is this bullshit anyway?" Valeryan asked, attempting to dry out the dampened mood. We were nearly there; I estimated about another two minutes. The back-alleys were the fastest way around this city - you just had to make sure you weren't there at the wrong time.