HalfElven: Book Four
Part Two
Kahvi came marching up to Voll as the sun started to rise on the second day since the Wolfriders' rescue, the third of HalfElven's slumber. "Is she still asleep?" The question was asked in the sharp, clipped voice of a leader with little patience for anything.
Voll nodded. "My own need for rest in so minor as to not exist. Sleep, and dreams, are a luxury to me. But this . . . this is not natural." He didn't need to say that he had sat guardian over her the entire time as Wolfriders and the occasional curious Go-Back stopped by to touch her shoulder or poke her arm.
"From what I hear, she'd be quite the warrior if she'd just wake up."
"She saved my life and I fear that now she pays the price for it."
Kahvi snorted and walked off.
---
Rayek watched them from the side of the lodge. He barely remembered the maiden from the Wolfrider's arrival in Sorrow's End, but since he had helped save them, the Wolfriders had told him plenty about her, about her magic.
He had worked himself past exhaustion to expand his gifts and reclaim abilities long thought lost. And he was not yet done learning. There was still so much he could not do.
In a moment HalfElven had unleashed more power, more magic, then he had seen in a lifetime. If he could learn from her . . . As much as Leetah, here was a maiden strong enough, gifted enough, to be his equal. And she had used her power to save a near High One, a Firstborn.
If she would just wake . . .
He walked over to where Voll sat with HalfElven. The sullen Glider, Kureel, give him a brief nod of respect. The female, Aroree, was still curled in on herself, despite Skywise's best attempts to draw her out. Rayek knelt next to HalfElven and reached out to touch her arm. Magic was racing through her in torrents like he had never sensed before. He almost didn't notice young Suntop appear at his shoulder.
"Is she ready to wake up yet?" The child sounded slightly worried as he patted the winged lizard draped across his shoulders.
"What do you mean?" Voll asked.
"She's doing something. That's why she's still asleep. Citaya's worried, though. She keeps talking about 'overcompensation', whatever that means."
"Maybe we should wake her, then." Rayek started to tighten his hand on HalfElven's arm, preparing to take hold of it.
"It's okay. I think she's done."
Just then, HalfElven took a deep breath and stirred. She blinked her eyes several times and struggled to focus her eyes. "Voll?" She turned her head. "Suntop?" Then she looked over more. "Rayek. So you did survive. With all I have changed . . . I was afraid . . ."
For a moment Rayek felt a strange emotion in his heart. He wasn't even sure how to describe it. That she had worried about him, had thought about him . . .
Voll helped her sit up. "Are you well?"
"Well enough, for now." She took a deep breath. "Where's Cutter? I need to talk to my chief. Tell him what I've done. And why." She closed her eyes and a few tears leaked out.
"What have you done?" Rayek asked.
"Sealed off my magic. Most of it anyways."
---
"You did what?" Kahvi was incredulous. "You threw away a weapon . . ."
"You would do the same thing, if that weapon became a threat." HalfElven stood firm under Kahvi's furious gaze.
Cutter was just as confused and uncomprehending; his style was just a bit different. "Why, HalfElven?"
"I'm hunted. One of our own, a Traveler, a brother, turned traitor on the rest of us. Throwing that much power around is a sure fire way to get noticed. I'm praying he didn't catch anything and that if I lay low for a while that he won't find me."
Reluctantly Cutter nodded once. "I don't like it, but I can't fault you. What happens if he finds you anyways?"
"Under other circumstances, I'd run. Take off across the worlds until he lost me. But I'm past the point when that would have been an option. Leaving now would leave you vulnerable and I care too much. For better or worse, I'm a Wolfrider now, my chief, and I can't abandon my tribe."
"So you would stand and fight?"
A grin broke across Kahvi's face and HalfElven nodded slowly. "My powers will unseal. I dare not be without them long. I would stand and do everything within my power to ensure the Wolfrider's survival and, by extension, the survival of every elf tribe on the face of this planet."
"But not yours." Up to now, Rayek had watched silently.
"I'm not looking to die. There are things that I must still do. But there's a set of triplets who can do what I do when they work together so I suppose I'm expendable." She carefully met his eyes. "Sometimes the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. Sometimes it doesn't, but sometimes it does."
After a moment, Rayek turned away, troubled.
---
Rayek found her later, putting up weapons after a sparring match. "I still do not fully understand. Why would you willingly limit yourself this way? You could do so much . . ."
HalfElven sighed, mostly at herself. Even when she wasn't trying, she changed things. "Yes, I could. I have enough power at my disposal that I could make any accomplishment of yours seem insignificant, worthless. I could overshadow you to the point that you would just give up and wither away and everything you have ever done would be lost and forgotten. I could destroy you in ways that make death look like nothing." She threw a shield onto a stack of them. "But just because I can do something doesn't mean that I should. Your power, your accomplishments, might not be as great as mine, but that doesn't mean that they are less, either. I was born with my powers. You have worked for yours. And I can appreciate the effort you put into them. I value your gifts as something mine are not." She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Sometimes limits give us the only freedom we have." She turned back to the shields.
Rayek was stunned. Such alien concepts – lesser powers having greater value, the choice to embrace limitation. . . . "Please, teach me." She looked back at him, her eyes wide. "I realize that it would be difficult, with your powers sealed, but please, teach me to Travel."
HalfElven turned and abruptly sat on a bench as her legs gave way beneath her. "Oh God, Rayek, I almost wish I dared. You have the potential, it would be so easy to awaken it . . . But there is something that you will do, something that only you can do, for the good of all elves everywhere. You will sacrifice yourself so that others can sleep peacefully in ignorance of just how much you have done for them. When that day comes you will understand why I dare not allow the one held prisoner within you to have access to Traveler powers." She was silent a moment, then pushed herself off the bench and ran, unable to face the grief in Rayek's eyes.
---
Much later Rayek looked up from something to see the winged lizardling land on a fur across from him. The creature met his eyes. My friend told me to tell you that if you are still willing to learn that I can teach you to expand your Sending skills. It will take hard work and effort, though.
Rayek smiled. Easy was never his style, anyways.
