Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Blue Eyes, White Horse, and a Chakram
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Chapter 49: All Greek to Me
When Solan and Xena returned to Kerith's office, he was indeed more willing to cooperate. Neither led on to what had transpired in the hallway, but what ever Xena had said or done to the boy, he had certainly changed his attitude. He muttered a quick apology to which Kerith accepted and invited Solan to resume his seat. Xena, who had been standing behind Solan, gave one of his shoulders a squeeze, signaling she was satisfied, and then returned her own seat next to the bard.
Gabrielle caught Xena's eye, to ask what had happened. Xena returned the look, giving the bard a half smile and a wink. Gabrielle rested her palm on Xena's leg, giving it a slight squeeze, to which Xena moved her own hand, covering the bard's. The gentle touch was both welcoming and reassuring to them both.
"Alright," Kerith began. "Shall we try this again?"
With a nod of agreement from Solan, Kerith touched his finger tips to Solan's forehead, and closing his eyes in concentration, probed the boy's pathways to look for his Gifts. He knew that Solan had a strong MindSpeech Gift, although he hadn't seen it yet, it had been apparent in what the boy had demonstrated he could do. Kerith indeed saw a strong yellow, which indicated the MindSpeech. He also saw the budding start of an orange MageGift and not one, but two other Gifts, one which was totally new, and one that looked familiar. Solan had the same silver that Xena and Gabrielle possessed, and a deep purple. He had never quite figured out what the silver was, and had just assumed that it had something to do with the link that Xena and Gabrielle shared. The deep purple however, was a mystery.
"Well, it's interesting," Kerith concluded. "Xena, you were right he does have a MageGift which is just budding. It's faint and I can tell it's new, but like any new Gift, it's hard to tell how strong it will be until the pathways fully open up."
Xena nodded. "I figured it was something like that."
"There is more though. There is the MindSpeech, which seems to be fully developed. Honestly it's one of the strongest I've ever seen. It's no wonder he's picking up on other people's thoughts and can freely talk with just about anyone. Once he learns to use it, he should be able to talk to anyone, if they have the Gift or not, probably over a large distance too."
"Is that unusual?" asked Gabrielle.
"Well the MindSpeech, itself is not. Most Herald's have some degree of it. The power behind it is unusual though." He paused and then continued. "I can see two other Gifts he posses as well. One I have never seen before. And I have no idea what it is. We will probably have to wait until it develops to see where it goes. The last oneā¦. Well."
Xena and Gabrielle both looked to him, waiting for him to continue.
"Xena, Gabrielle. That first night that we met, when I tested you, I told you both you possessed something I'd never seen before." He paused in thought deciding to explain a little further "I see Gifts in colors. For example, to me the MageGift shows up orange, the FireStarting is red. Each Gift has its own color. That is how I tell them apart. In you two I saw a bight silver. After getting to know you, and seeing what you were both capable of, I assumed that the silver was your link to one another. What did you call it?"
"Soulmates," provided Gabrielle.
"Ah, yes. And that seemed to make sense. But now I'm not so sure. Solan has this same silver light."
"Well, that's not actually that surprising. The Starry-eyed One said that Solan was special, like Gabrielle and I," Xena remarked.
"The Starry-eyed One? You saw her? Spoke with her?" Kerith seemed surprised.
"Yes, she came to us the night we went to bring Solan here. Why?" Xena answered.
"The Starry-eyed One doesn't do that. She never gets directly involved." Kerith said, disbelieving.
"Well she did. How else would you explain that Solan and Callisto are here?" Xena challenged.
"I'm not saying that I don't believe you. Nothing seems to be impossible with you two. It's just, that never happens."
"What never happens?" asked Garret, as he entered the room. "Sorry, I'm late had some things to attend to."
"The Starry-eyed One getting involved directly with someone's life," Kerith answered Garret's question.
"Of course not, she doesn't work that way," Garret agreed, as taking a seat on the corner of Kerith's desk as there were no chairs left.
"Xena and Gabrielle have had a first hand encounter with her," Kerith explained.
"I've seen her twice actually," corrected Gabrielle.
"She's an awful nice lady" Callisto interjected. "I like talking to her."
All eyes on the room fell on the small girl who suddenly became very self conscious, and buried her head into Gabrielle's chest.
"Callisto, honey, you've talked to her?" Gabrielle asked.
Callisto nodded and mumbled into Gabrielle's chest. "She's my friend. She comes to see me every night since I've been here."
===[x]
Xena was on her way with a small contingent of Herald's to explore 'Solan's discovery.' She rode on Kaylin, with her son behind her. The mages Samuel and Quinn had also joined her along with their own Companions. Gabrielle had elected to take Callisto back home. She wanted to do some writing and was going to try to get Callisto to take a nap. After the realization of the goddess's influence, and the questions that followed, the little girl was shaky and emotionally drained. Gabrielle had tried to keep the questioning in a positive light, but the little girl had picked up on the uneasiness of the other adults, and that itself was taking a toll on her.
They traveled in relative silence, knowing that the Companions were talking amongst themselves and filling in the two Mages on the information that they knew so far. It wasn't much to go on, but the fact that it was an unknown, and that Xena had thought it a magical workshop had both the mages excited.
As they trotted along, Xena's mind wandered over the meeting that they had just come from. She had thought that the meeting with Kerith and Garret had been rather productive. They had discovered, as Xena predicted, that Solan was developing a MageGift. They had also discovered that Callisto had formed some kinds of bond with the Starry-eyed goddess. This last discovery seemed very surprising to Garret and Kerith, and it disturbed Xena. Her own personal experiences with gods had rarely turned out to be positive and now she had to be concerned with the relationship between a virtually unknown god and her new daughter. Gabrielle, on the other hand, seemed to take it all in stride. She was convinced that the Starry-eyed One wasn't a threat, but then again, Gabrielle tended to see the positive side of things. Xena wasn't so sure.
It wasn't long before they had located the outcropping of rock that led to the room. They dismounted and Xena approached the boulder that she knew held the doorway. She switched to her MageSight, looking for the door, and was perplexed to find it wasn't' there.
Xena frowned. "I don't see it, it was right here last night."
The two mages approached her, and using their own Gifts probed the face of the rock.
"I don't see a door," Quinn confirmed.
"Me either," agreed Samuel.
Solan had hung back from the rest of the group.
Xena had turned to him. "Solan?"
"I can't see it," he said. "It's more of a feeling."
Xena raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to explain more.
He took this as a queue to approach the door. He reached out and touched the face of the boulder. His palm glowed for a moment with power, and then a doorway appeared. "It's still here," he said.
"So it is," agreed Xena, who could now see the outline of the door with her MageSight.
"Interesting," remarked Quinn.
"Alright, stay here," Xena ordered. "I'll check it out, then we can go in."
Xena drew her sword. Not that she sensed any danger, and there was no indication of a problem last night, but she would rather take a moment to secure the room, then to be sorry later. As Xena disappeared into the room, she wasn't surprised to find it in same state that it was last night. The dust, she noted had not been disturbed.
"It's clear, you can come on in," she called.
Solan and the two mages followed her call and entered the room.
"Wow," remarked Samuel. "I can't believe it. It's lit by mage lights."
"Yes," agreed Quinn. "Never seen one, but those are definitely mage lights. This place is old; it has the sense of old magic."
Xena nodded. "I thought it was something like that. I can sense the magical residue. I scanned for traps last night, didn't find anything."
"Yes, it appears clear," Quinn agreed as Samuel nodded his head as well. "It's dusty in here though; let me see if I can do something about that."
Quinn closed her eyes, and Xena could feel her building up power. Solan eyes got wide; he too could feel the power building. Suddenly all the dust lifted off the floor, the tables, the shelves, there was a flash of light, and then it was gone. The dust that was a moment ago over an inch thick was suddenly gone.
"It's not really gone," Quinn explained. "I just moved it." She caught Xena's raised eyebrow and with a smile continued. "When I was a trainee I really hated to clean, figured that spell out and never had to worry about passing inspection again."
"Dang," Solan replied clearly impressed. He'd heard a bit about this MageGift, and knew there were lots of different aspects to it, but besides seeing his Mother catch a few fireballs, he hadn't seen it in action. "This mage stuff is cool."
Samuel laughed. "Yes it is."
"Alright," Quinn said rubbing her hands together in earnest, "let's see what's in here."
The four starting to comb through the archive of scrolls and books and after a while they realized that not everything was written in the same language. Most of it was written in what Quinn referred to as Old Valdemarian, which seemed to be a more elaborate version of the current tongue. There were a few in Karsite, some in a foreign language that no one recognized, and to Xena's shock some in Greek.
Xena stood for a minute, staring at the scroll in her hand.
"Mother, you ok?" Solan asked.
"Yes, I just realized two things," she responded.
Quinn and Samuel each suspended their search, and came over to see what Xena had found.
"This scroll, it's in Greek." Seeing the blank look on Quinn and Samuels face, she explained. "Greek is the language of my home. I just realized that I've been reading, writing and speaking Valdemarian since I've arrived here, not realizing that it was any different. But holding this scroll, I can see the difference. This is Greek, and it's very different then Valdemarian." She paused for a minute, reading through the scroll.
"It's an older dialect, but there is something else. The handwriting is different, but they are Gabrielle's words."
"What?" Samuel asked.
"It's a poem. She wrote it for me," Xena replied.
