The Ancients

2: Manipulation

I heard muffled sounds when I came back to myself. Turning from seeing the backrest of the sofa to look at my brothers, I noticed they were both standing in front of me, tall as they were. It didn't feel like I'd been out long. Long enough for Reece, my older brother, to have returned home, however.

"What do you mean he just walked in and knocked you out?" Reece, as usual, was agitated and on edge.

He always was these days. Council matters that weighed him down made him extra moody. Holding a bloodied, wet cloth in between the palms of his hands, he whipped it around in the air as he spoke. Reece's shoulder-length black hair swayed as he moved.

He paced up and down the small space between the creme-coloured couch I was on and the armchair Emmet stood in front of.

Emmet shuffled, exhausted. "I've told you now four times what happened. I don't know what else to say!" He threw up his arms and let them fall to his side again.

The impact of Emmet's distress and Reece's frustration wasn't sudden. It slithered so slowly onto my radar, I had mistaken their emotions for my own. It was only when they burst out of someone that they impacted me heavily enough for confusion to be impossible. It was like being trapped out in the ocean. One could float on its surface and barely notice the rippling waves, but when the ocean grew angry and the waves would start thrashing, anyone would notice the difference. And so it was with detecting emotions.

As much as I wanted to influence the ones floating in the air—mostly so I could be free of them—I refrained from meddling. 

My brothers both didn't appreciate it whenever I did.

Instead of continuing to listen to their conversation, I tried to find my inner calm. Withdrawing myself, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I stared deep into my emotional signature. It was a light, faded blue colour of mist that surrounded my body and filled it at the same time—at all times—but couldn't be seen by anyone but me. At the core of the mist there was a little midnight blue drop, shaped like a tear. It took as my mind touched it, a deep sense of tranquility washed through my entire soul and gave the mist surrounding me a dark, blue.

The energy it required to grab and hold on to tranquility began to leak out of me.

Though I was drained and exhausted, I felt a sense of pride that my will and influence had worked. Had I panicked, all three of us would have spent the rest of the day screaming at each other, not taking another step out of our rooms. 

I felt slightly dizzy when I looked up to my arguing brothers.

Suddenly, a cold grip of fear tried to break through the barricade I'd created years ago, like a stronghold keeping the bad feelings separated from the calmer ones.

But it banged against the wall, furious that it had been suppressed, like so many others.

I didn't care. I didn't want to feel it. Concentrating once more, I forced myself to withdraw and search for the fickle emotion that began to create doubt inside my concrete walls. The dark stain of fear threatened my emotions, trying to break into a stronghold that took years to build.