6. Parting Empathy

The sun reflecting off the cobblestones seemed pale and distorted to Ivan. It was as if he had seen sun for so long that his eyes had grown weak, displaying the world under such light as if it were a drawing whose colors had long since faded. He looked at the fountain, whose waters now seemed to run sluggishly through the stagnant day, and thought helplessly of Aden, of Devon. The fountain perfectly symbolized every mistake he had made since entering Toreau. He pictured the rage in Aden's eyes, the pain in Devon's, and the two images overlapped. He had caused all that; he had hurt those two, that one person irreparably. Many times, the other members of the party had tried to cheer him up--Isaac with empty assurances, Mia with logic, Garet with jokes--but soon they all gave up. Ivan had been in the wrong, after all, and he knew it. Nothing anyone could say would take that away. Besides, they had other things to worry about--such as stocking supplies for the journey back to their ship. Ivan should have helped, but the others left him alone, sulking as he sat there next to the fountain.

He would never see Aden or Devon again. He would never be able to apologize. He thought of the sympathy Devon had shown him when he'd noticed the wounds inflicted by the guards, the determination he'd shown when fighting to save his town, and the cleverness of Aden's painful lesson. All had come from one amazing young man who Ivan had permanently offended.

Quietly, Isaac approached him, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Ivan, it's time to leave."

Ivan looked up, and his violet eyes appeared closer to gray. "He thinks Aden is a terrible person," he said, as if trying in vain to justify what he had done. "He believes, he, Aden, is antisocial and totally incapable of earning respect. So he uses his Psynergy to transform into Devon, creating an alter-ego he believed to be much better than himself. Isn't that awful?"

Isaac said nothing, but nodded somberly.

"And now, we'll leave, and he'll believe I'm avoiding him because I know he's Aden. Which is true enough." Ivan sighed.

"Would you like to . . .?"

"No," Ivan answered before Isaac could finish. "I wouldn't dare visit him now. Not even to apologize."

The two regained their feet and walked toward the stone tunnel that was the entrance and exit to the town of Toreau. They were quickly joined by Garet and Mia.

About a third of the town had turned out to show them off. Wearily, Ivan recognized many of the villagers who had stared at him the previous day during his bath in the fountain. But this time, there was nothing mocking in the way any of them smiled or waved. The village simply believed the four Adepts were heroes.

Ivan did not feel like a hero.

As they neared the entrance to Toreau's stone tunnel, the party slowed. Leaning against the wall off the tunnel, waiting for them, was Aden. Slowly, squinting from the sunlight as if it were going to melt him, Aden emerged and confronted the party, grimacing. He was dressed entirely in black--the same outfit Devon had worn the night before, as if the boy had changed his body but was too exhausted to change his clothes. Spots of blood and dirt dotted the wrinkled fabric, more visible in the light than they had been in the darkness of the previous night.

"So," said Aden flatly, "you know."

At the sight of Aden, most of the other villagers had fallen silent. What would he be doing here, the crazy boy who only came out of his home to buy books, the antisocial wretch who slept all day, whose only income was the unexplained endorsements given him by the Great Devon?

Aden had made the Adepts the center of a new kind of attention, no longer the center of fun at a festival, but the center of drama at a funeral.

"Regardless of what you know," Aden said, "I still must thank you on behalf of the town. Without your help, 'the Great Devon' would surely have fallen."

Even though Ivan knew at least part of Aden's speech was genuine, it all sounded like bitter sarcasm to him. The dark boy applied an exaggerated sneer when referring to Devon, for example. He couldn't help but note the drastic difference in the personalities of Aden and Devon--Devon had been effortlessly confident, but Aden seemed to taint everything he said with negativity. It was striking that the same person could be so different at different times.

Aden's pale face seemed out of place in the sunlight. Extending his hand to Isaac and still squinting his dull blue eyes against the light, he smiled bitterly.

"Thank you, Isaac."

Smiling warmly, Isaac shook Aden's hand.

"Garet . . ." With a somewhat less successful smile, Garet shook his hand.

Mia looked sympathetically at the boy as she politely grasped his hand.

Finally, Aden reached Ivan. Wordlessly, he extended his hand to the Jupiter Adept, and it dangled in the air between the two. "Go ahead," Aden said at last. "Take it. Take it all."

Ivan stared at the proffered hand, not quite daring to do as Aden suggested. Then, he looked into Aden's sad blue eyes, and knew what he had to do. Keeping his eyes fixed on Aden's, he seized the other boy's hand. With the entire crowd watching, Ivan once again called his Mind Read to life.

But this time, he used it on himself.

The Psynergy was not really meant to be used in this way, but Ivan had known it would work. The problem was not really that it couldn't be done, but that there was no point--why would anyone need to read their own mind, when no one knew their thoughts better than themselves? But this wasn't for Ivan. With his hand clasped onto Aden's, the other boy could share in the Psynergy. All Ivan had to do was to think what he needed to express, and Aden would hear.

He started at the beginning, feeding Aden his earliest memories of life, of being raised by Master Hammet of Kalay. Ivan had never known where he was born, never known his parents, and hence had not understood why he was fundamentally different from the other children. He had practiced Psynergy for as long as he could remember, and had initially assumed that everyone must have this power. Of course, it was his power itself, not any verbal explanation, that made him realize the truth. Soon, some in Kalay began to fear him. He was a strange child, one overly prone to touching people, but such flaws were forgivable. The problem was that he knew things, things that no one should have known. With just a touch, Ivan had pulled secrets, deep worries, subconscious attractions and hidden betrayals from people's minds. He showed Aden all of this, how the people of his village had begun to view him as an oddity, how they'd become increasingly cold and avoided him, afraid that their darkest side would be detected. Then, almost a year ago, Isaac and Garet had come. Ivan had lost the Shaman's Rod entrusted to him by Hammet to thieves, and the two Adepts had helped him recover it. Ivan had felt an unexplained joy at discovering there were others like him, other Adepts. He was not the only one with such strange powers. He was not alone. After reading their minds, he had joined Isaac and Garet on their quest to recover the Elemental Stars. They had met Mia on their way. In spite of their efforts, two of the four Elemental Lighthouses had been lit, and Jenna and Kraden had disappeared. Their search had led them here, to Toreau.

Ivan opened his eyes and quieted his Psynergy. Behind him, he could hear the confused mutterings of the Toreau residents as they tried to decide what was happening. It must have looked strange to them, as Ivan and Aden had frozen in the middle of their handshake, closed their eyes, and . . .

Aden's face had changed. No longer did he squint against the sun, and his dim eyes were no longer overflowing with derision. Instead, his face seemed brighter, and wore an expression of wonder and hope that Ivan had never seen on Aden. He didn't expect what Ivan had done, and it caught him more than off guard. It completely appalled him. Why would Ivan offer this piece of himself, these secrets, when all he had to do was take what he wanted and leave the village forever?

"Take!" Aden whispered. "I said take!"

So Ivan did.

Aden was the last surviving member of the Pluto clan that had once lived far to the east of Toreau. His hometown had been destroyed when he was about seven by monsters--the same monsters that had finally perished just the previous night. During the attack, his mother, a high Elder of the Pluto clan, had taken him and hidden him in the ruins of the sanctum that stood not far from the village. She had left him there, and gone back to the battle at the village, gone back to use the last of her faltering Psynergy to continue to defend the town. However, the Pluto Adepts were not known for their great strength, and Aden's mother had known it. She gave up her life for him, but at first her sacrifice seemed quite futile. Seven years old and all alone, Aden had wandered the plains, barely staying alive off the meager scraps of food mother earth offered him. Constantly, he was haunted by the thought that, had he and his clan been stronger, they could have beaten the monsters. His mother and his friends would still be alive. So he practiced Psynergy constantly, and quickly became stronger than anyone in his village had been. As the son of a high Elder, Aden apparently had inborn talent. After a year of being on his own, Aden was discovered by Tyrus, a general of Toreau. When he heard that Toreau was battling the same monsters that destroyed his town, Aden used his power to help them--but not before leaving town and returning as Devon. Aden had continued to live in Toreau, sleeping during the day, and playing his Devon role at night. Exhausted during the day, his Aden personality began to decline, and quickly earned the disgust of the villagers. He was antisocial and irritable because he slept so much, pathetic because he was so small compared to the other boys in Toreau, and crazy because he preferred reading to fighting. Devon, Aden realized, was by far the better person. His fictional creation was infinitely more interesting than himself. So, Aden sunk into detested obscurity, while Devon earned respect and, eventually, a position of leadership. The last surviving Pluto Adept was simultaneously loved and hated. . . .

The Psynergy finally died down, and the two boys, finally freed from the sharing of internal thoughts, examined each others' faces as if to judge how well it fit with their emotions. Ivan had never done something so deeply amazing with his Mind Read before. He had known Aden for no more than a day, yet he somehow felt as if they knew each other better than anyone ever had, as if they'd grown up together as close childhood friends. He would explain most of Aden's past to the others later, just as Devon could explain Ivan to his generals, but neither could share all they had gained. The emotion that went along with the events, the insecurities both had felt in their similar pasts . . . those would remain their own, secrets between two friends.

"You could come with us," Ivan offered.

Aden shook his head. "If you've been reading me at all, you know I can't. The war has been won, but war is all these people know. I have to stay, to teach them about art, culture, writing, music. When the book store is as popular as the tavern, maybe my work will be finished."

Ivan nodded. "Tell them, though. Tell your men the truth. You're only one person. There's no need to pretend you're two. They would understand."

Aden sighed. "Maybe."

As the group left Toreau, the other three glancing quizzically at Ivan, Aden waved at them and smiled, the first genuine smile Ivan had seen from him.

Through the distance, with his black hair and smiling face, Aden looked exactly like Devon.