Chapter Fourteen
Told by Fang
I stop dead in my tracks. I'm staring at this woman, who looks at me with silver eyes framed by white hair. But she's young.
"Argent." Kai greets. I can tell she thinks highly of this woman who looks so sad.
"This is Argento Occhico. Fang, this is your mother."
Now I really can't move. I'm frozen in shock. Is this really her? She looks at me with such a look in her eyes…I can't discern everything in them, but the rest of her face is emotionless. I see Kai step out of the door out of the corner of my eye.
She mumbles something in another language. "My son." Are the only two words I am able to make out.
She looks as if she wants to run up to me and hug me, but thinks better of it. "I'm sure there is a lot you wish to be answered. Come. Follow." She says in a surprisingly soft voice. Though it seems slightly rusty from unuse. She walks to the far wall where a random pillar is. She puts her fingers in a crack and opens a hidden door. Inside in a room wide enough to open our wings, and it seems impossibly tall.
She turns down a small corridor and keeps walking, knowing where she is going. I follow her as the floor seems to go down ward. She opens another hidden door and we are out on a small balcony.
"You can fly a little if you want. I haven't flown in years." She says, sitting crossed legged on the balcony floor. I look at her, studying her. Wondering.
"Why haven't you flown?"
"I don't prefer to tell that story just yet. I suppose Kai explained most things to you. So… any questions that you have?" She asks from her place on the ground.
"Yeah…" I think about how to word it. "You're my mother, I gather."
She nods. "Yes. That I am."
"Kai said that you had wings, too."
She stands and unfurls a single black wing with silver speckles. "That I do."
I am amazed. Though she's only as tall as I am, both of her wings would be about 17 feet.
"Explain to me about the winged humans…"
"Well." She sits back down, her wing tucked back up. "I don't know much about it. We were all born two percent bird. Through genes. The first was thousands of years ago. No one knows how it started. Some say it was an accident. Others say God decided to create a new breed. And many other theories. I personally believe the latter." After she talks for a while, her voice sounds like bells. I wonder at what she has told me.
"Also, we have odd powers. Your sister… that girl. Used to give me the biggest scares with her illusions. She can create them. Has since she was seven. She's gotten so good it can seem as if you're in a whole new place. Make you feel as if you're in pain, when you aren't. Make you think something's dead or gone while it's really doing cartwheels right in front of you. The group uses them as training most the time. She never uses them unless it means life or death. She hates her power."
"But… How can I trust her if she can do that?"
"Simple. Look for the things that are false. Often in the illusions you'll be able to find something that just seems off. I'll teach you how to know later.
"Another one of her powers is also very rare. Energy Seeking. Everything emits its own unique energy. Kai can sense the energies. Where they are, what they are, if they are a threat or not. That's why it never works to sneak up on her." At this point Argent gives me a stern look.
I give her a look that says, "go on."
"If she's familiar with the energy, she knows exactly what and who it is. Every detail. If it's unfamiliar, just pretty much what race and whether it has ill intent or not. Which is still a lot compared to most other Energy seekers."
"What about you?" I ask her.
"Me?" Argent gives a short laugh. "I can hide things. Use anything to hide something. That's why this place has never been found, and how it was built."
I think of something. "Why am I getting told this? Why not Max?"
She cocks an eyebrow. "Because she is having her questions answered."
"How?"
"Through the Voice. Kai taps into it sometimes. Most the time though, we have no clue who it is. They are untraceable."
"Huh…" I think over the information.