Disclaimer: If I ever think of something original, I'll insert it here.
Anyway, chapter 34, I'm not even going to bother with all the usual things I say about hoping this chapter will be written faster than the last, because all that seems to accomplish is me jinxing myself. Instead, I'll proceed directly to the reviews. Hey, looks like it worked! This is the fastest chapter I've gotten out in months. Of course, its also extremely short, but there you go.
Fireblade: Really? I sort of thought her story would be interesting to write as well, only I've told most of it already. I suppose I could work it as a sort of a companion piece to Greens, maybe. I'm glad you liked my description, and you're right, a Healed Karissa will kick ass.
Acacia: Glad you enjoyed!
Brighid: Thanks!
Alacaeriel: Unfortunately, I don't think she'll get the chance. But she may have a few words to say about him, and they won't be complementary.
Wishing: That was just her gift of Mindspeaking coming back into activity. The power that was supposed to be that sort of recoiled back, giving her access to it in its proper capacity again. I'm not exactly sure myself if the Healer involved was Rith or not – judging by the time scheme, it was either her or the Mindhealer before her.
Kathleen: Well, I wouldn't call it exactly easy, but I figured the attack thing is rather overdone.
Frequency: Always good to hear that other people love my characters like I love them. Keep reading!
Ali: Glad you liked my sideplot. Treet is coming back now, in a sort of sub-capacity, this one will still be from Karissa/Lirain PoV, but after this one, the main focus will be back on Treet. Truth to tell, Karissa sort of distracted me. She was supposed to be a walk on, damn it! About the tense change, it was really supposed to show how Karissa slipped into a trance and started reliving everything as though it were happening again. If I ever get around to doing rewrites, maybe I'll try to work on that bit.
Wizard: Thankies. The plot should be moving along nicely now, if I can just write the darn thing.
Anyway, moving on to the next chapter, where I finally do something about rescuing Treet, lest it begins to appear that he is stuck in limbo forever.
Sorry this is a really short chapter; this seemed like the logical stopping place, since I want the actual rescue to be from Herald Adin's point of view.
Chapter 34: Mindspeech
Lirain ran after Karissa, found her doubled over in the bushes. Lirain held her hand, stroked her sweat-matted blonde hair and told her how courageous she was. Not exactly an orthodox method of treating someone at least twenty years your senior, but Lirain knew that it was what Karissa needed to hear. For a moment, both of them forgot their relative ages and Lirain became simply the Healer – though the term held none of its previous connotations – and Karissa was simply the patient.
After a time, Karissa took a deep breath and nodded at Lirain in thanks. She staggered back to the clearing, sitting down heavily. "Phew." There was so much she felt she had to say, yet she said none of it, only that one exhalation.
It was as though a huge empty void had opened up inside her. Not a bad one, exactly, just an empty one. As though a monster had been riding upon her shoulder and had suddenly departed, leaving her curiously light. On the other hand, she felt rather strange to herself, as though she was a whole different person. Not something she would ever want to try again, despite the undeniable advantage of her current position.
Karissa also felt strangely wide open, something she attributed to an awakened Gift of Mindspeech. She would have to deal with it, she imagined, but she preferred to present the Heraldic Circle with a fait accompli, if at all possible. She in no way wanted to be the object of their curiosity.
As though she were reading Karissa's mind, Lirain spoke up. "We should do something about getting you shielded with some proper shields, so that you're set up to use your Gift. If you don't want to go to your Circle with this just yet, I can take you to Rith. I think she knows the basics of Gift training, she teaches the occasional Heraldic Trainees who pop up with Empathy. While Healers are naturally shielded to some degree, Empaths aren't."
Karissa noted with satisfaction that an idea that would have sent her running in the opposite direction a few scant candlemarks ago now seemed like nothing more than solid good sense. She nodded her assent and they got up to begin the leisurely walk back to the House of Healing. Karissa was a little unsteady on her feet but no more, a fact that she also noted with pleasure.
Though she had thought that she had fully grasped the implications of Lirain's work, Karissa was again shocked as she walked into the House of Healing. It might as well have been an entirely different place from the one that had haunted her memories for so long. She would never enjoy being in there, for more reasons than one, but she would never again be unable to endure it. In some ways, in fact, she found it oddly soothing, a fact she attributed to the presence of so many Empaths. Thank the gods they were well shielded, though. She also had a faint suspicion that Lirain was keeping light shields on her because she should have been able to pick up more.
Rith's office wasn't far from the House of Healing, which was a blessing for Karissa, who was beginning to feel decidedly weak at the knees after so much exertion.
Rith opened the door at their first knock. Surprisingly, not only was she in her office but it was also empty except for her. She took one look at the somewhat disheveled Karissa and at Lirain beside her and seemed to know exactly what was going on. With a gentle guiding arm, she drew Karissa into her office and sat her down in one of the comfortable chairs. Coming back outside, she motioned to Lirain and told her to go and wait in Karissa's room. "You needn't hover, I'll return her in a bit," Rith said. Lirain nodded, slightly disgruntled at being left out of the conclusion of her case. She returned to Karissa's rooms, fully intending to take a nap. Her strength was being sapped more and more easily in the past days, something she attributed to Treet's condition.
Back in Rith's office, Karissa looked at the Healer in an almost eager way. There had been a short time in her period as a Trainee when she had been just a little envious of the Trainees with strong Gifts. Now, of course, she knew better than to envy them, but she still looked forward to acquiring a new skill.
Rith sat down in an equally comfortable chair across from Karissa.
At her first sight of the Herald, she had known that Lirain had done it and had cheered internally for both of them. She had known, also, that she would have to instruct the Herald in the basics of controlling her Gift. Luckily it had spent most of her adult life too bound up to cause trouble.
"I take it you're to teach me how to shield this Gift of mine properly so that it doesn't run off with me?" Karissa asked.
"Yes, I am," Rith said. "I'll teach you to ground, center and shield, the basics. Beyond that, you'll need to get help from your circle."
Karissa nodded her understanding.
"The first step is to reach within yourself for a stable place." Rith intoned.
Karissa closed her eyes, looked within her own mind, familiar yet strange. After a few moments of searching, she found it. A merchant's daughter at heart, she saw it as that perfect button among a sea of rejects. When she held it in her hand, it felt like Veria's soft flank, the feeling of sun-warmed grass against her skin, a hot bath after a long trip.
Rith knew when Karissa had found it; she practically radiated relief. "Now, reach downwards and find the echo of that place within the earth. Once you have it, connect yourself to it."
Karissa looked. Down and down and down until she felt like she was standing at the bottom of a cliff. She found the place she was looking for, reached for it and tied herself to it for all time. As she snapped everything into place, she wondered how she had possibly missed this connection. She felt curiously stable, as though she was leaning against a tall tree.
"Now, to shield yourself. Properly, this time," Rith said, with a trace of a laugh in her voice. "Imagine a wall. A wall between yourself and the thoughts – only the thoughts – of the people around you. You put it up yourself, so you can adjust it yourself too. Make it thicker or thinner as you wish, depending on how much you want to pick up and how many people are around."
Karissa cautiously tried this, found that the knack came easily to her hand. She looked up at Rith for further instructions.
Rith laughed aloud this time. "That's it, Herald."
"That's it?" Karissa asked, scowling as if she suspected a joke.
"That's it. Just remember to check on your shields every so often until they become reflex and come to me if you have any problems."
"Oh." Karissa felt almost let down. This was what all of those Trainees had gotten special classes about?
"Of course, there's a lot more to actually using your Gift, but you'll need to see your circle for that," Rith cautioned. "Now, since that's done, Lirain will be waiting in your room becoming more impatient by the minute, so I suggest you go and join her."
Lirain had been asleep, but she bounced into life as soon as Karissa walked in the door, alert and bright-eyed. She said nothing, simply waited.
"Well," Karissa said after a moment's silence, "I suppose we'd better be about this attempt of ours."
Lirain breathed a sigh of relief. She needed to talk to Treet again with a physical ache, and the thought of what he must be suffering made her sick with anger and fear. "Yes," she breathed, daring to hope. Returning to a more businesslike demeanor, she continued, "Now, it's going to seem as though I'm reaching a hand out to you. Simply imagine yourself taking it and leading me past your shields and it shall be so." Lirain suited word to action and reached out a mental hand along with a physical one to make the link take easier.
Karissa took both with very little fumbling.
:There. Now, think of Treet. Imagine reaching out to him, as I reached out to you.: Lirain sent.
Karissa thought of Treet as she had last seen him. She had the disturbing sensation of hurtling through space then slamming into something hard. It was him, she knew it and through their link she knew that Lirain also knew it. She grit her teeth and rammed into it again. :Damn it, I know you're there. You wouldn't believe what I've done to get to you, the least you can damn well do is talk to me: Karissa mentally shouted.
Treet's head snapped up, smashing into the wall behind him. He winced, but didn't pay it any particular mind. He suspected that his arm was broken and he was so battered that he supposed another knock on the head didn't really count for much. The voice he thought he heard, however, did give him pause for thought. The mindvoice was so strong that he couldn't believe he was making it up. The flavors of personality that came with it were so powerfully Karissa that he didn't think he could have faked them if he had tried.
:Karissa.: He said, wishing he could sound a little gladder.
Lirain's mindvoice followed hers, still weak but buoyed along with Karissa's power. :Treet.: The words were a caress, a gentle touch as he felt her 'look' at him.
:You're real: Treet said, unable to keep the rising hope out of his voice. He had begun to want to acquiesce to his Father's desires, his initial surety that he would be rescued replaced by the desire to simply stop the pain.
:Yes, of course! Did you really think the Collegium would leave one of their own out to dry: Karissa asked. :There should be a Herald coming to get you out of there soon.:
:Until then, though, you should probably be doing something about those injuries of yours.: Lirain suggested gently. Where Karissa's mindvoice was peppery and sharp, Lirain's was a warm, green balm. Treet had missed her, dreamed about her almost nightly. He floated in his awareness of her until a sharp mental kick from Karissa brought him back to reality. He still felt curiously lethargic, didn't feel like doing much at all. Doing brought thinking and if he thought anymore about his situation and how it had come to be, he thought he might fall apart.
With Lirain's encouragement, Treet brought to bear the Healing power he had let lie quiescent for the past week. With its up flow, he felt curiously charged. Healing oneself, of course, was rather like trying to do anything while looking in the mirror, but with Lirain's perspective subtly superimposed over his own, he spent some of his carefully hoarded energy and a good deal of Lirain's personal reserves, little did he know it, Healing the worst of his injuries. He left his arm alone, knowing that he couldn't Heal it right away and that spending that much energy on setting it would be a waste.
As though the link with Lirain had brought the thought to his head as it possibly had since it was foremost in Lirain's own mind, something suddenly occurred to Treet. :That was you, before, really? I wasn't dreaming you up: Treet asked Lirain.
:No, that was really me. As I tried to tell you at the time.: Lirain said, able to be amused now that she was back in contact with Treet.
:So everything you told me was true: Treet asked.
Lirain suddenly caught on. :Treet, we're lifebonded. I love you. I know we haven't known each other for all that long, but I've loved you since I first saw you. I need you more than I've ever needed anyone before.: She didn't know quite what to say next, so she just fell silent.
:I…I think I believe you.: Treet said. Then he realized how he sounded. :That we're lifebonded, I mean. Err.:
:It's alright.: Lirain said, vastly amused now. :I know exactly what you mean.:
At that moment, Treet heard the sounds of a scuffle upstairs and loud angry steps descending the stairs.
"I have the authority to haul you all up on Crown charges for this! You'll tell me where he is or I'll have you up for obstruction as well!"
Hearing the echoes through Treet's mind, Karissa smiled smugly. :The cavalry is in. And I dearly hope I get a chance at those so called parents of yours once they reach Haven: The last was uttered in a tone which promised dire retribution, but Treet barely heard. Could it be?
