The Thanaton Syndrome

Chapter Twenty-Three: Pt. 2

Once they'd gone quite a ways away from the makeshift camp, Jenna said, "Actually, I need to talk to you about something."

Seth felt a mixture of emotions at this, but primarily thought, now what?

"I didn't know how serious it was before, but now I've felt it more clearly."

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Felt what?"

"Do you remember our conversation, before the Octruxes came and took you away?"

Seth strained his memory, but found it difficult to remember so far back after so much had happened. He did vaguely remember talking to Jenna and he'd felt mixed emotions then as well. Slowly, he shook his head.

"You, like, fainted or something," she said.

"Oh, right." Seth now remembered the overwhelming emotions taking over, and even still, days later, felt the hopelessness and despair from that day.

"Do you know why?"

Seth hesitated. Truthfully, he didn't, but he also knew Jenna mostly wanted to hear about his "feeling other people's emotions" thing. He thought he could guess how she'd figured it out, though, remembering how she reached out to him right before the blood feast scenario.

When he didn't say anything right away, she continued. "I have visions, Seth. I see real things that have happened or will happen, sometimes even things that happen right now. With you, I saw something happening in the present but I saw more than you passing out. I could see..." she paused, looking for the right words. "Maybe I could feel you, sort of pulling me." She looked at him, and when he still didn't say anything, she went on, "You had so much power. I couldn't...resist you, at all. In fact, your power only got stronger and stronger until I could tell you were pulling at just about everyone going on the quest. It felt..." She shivered and Seth suddenly felt guilty. "It felt like you were invading, to an extent, but I don't think you meant to. At least, not on me." She glanced at him sideways, but he still refused to say anything. He wanted to hear her out first. "Well, then I saw or...more like, felt shadows or figures or strings of some sort. You grabbed at them all, and I saw them surrounding you, drowning you." It was Seth's turn to shiver. "You didn't seem so strong anymore, you know, as if you just decided you didn't want them anymore. I couldn't exactly tell what happened. Your power seemed to disappear. I found I could reach out and touch the shadows, though, and so I did and I sort of flung them off you."

Seth looked at her, incredulous. "You did that?"

She nodded.

"You saved me," he said.

She smiled. "You needed it. It appeared you bit off a little more than you could chew...but I still don't understand. What in Alaisia was that?"

Seth didn't answer, trying to choose his words carefully. He didn't want to look like a complete freak, but he didn't want to straight out lie either. "I don't know." His voice came out slow and uncertain.

"You can tell me." Seth felt a rush of warmth at her gentle voice. "Of all people, Seth, I'm the one who lives in an alternate reality half the time."

"Well, I can sort of, I suppose, if I try...I can feel people's emotions," he said. "It's like you said. If I reach out, I can feel strands of emotion everywhere and if I focus in on one, I can sense how someone's feeling." He shook his head. "But I have no idea where it all came from- something about this place, Alaisia, made it sort of...come out."

He looked at Jenna, slightly worried to see her reaction, but she only looked thoughtful.

"Find my emotions," she said.

Seth stopped walking, shocked. "You sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry, and if you can't keep back everyone else's, I'll reach in again and help fight them off." Jenna stopped too.

Seth looked at her eager face and gave in. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Tentatively, he reached out, feeling for the strands. He recognized the one distinctively known as Jenna, and got ahold of it.

Though he'd sensed hers before, he'd never gotten a good, proper sense of it until now. She seemed somewhat alien to him, strange and distant. At the same time, he felt an outpour of pure goodness and kindness. Still deeper in, at the center of her emotion, he sensed curiosity, eagerness, puzzlement, and a tinge of fear. He became fascinated with this strange emotion power, and went farther. As he went to dig beneath even her primary emotions of curiosity and puzzlement, he sensed a sharp pang of unease and with a jerk, he found himself back in the dark musty cave. In front of him, Jenna stood, eyes closed and clutching her head. She was panting and a bead of sweat ran down her forehead.

Seth immediately felt the rush of guilt. "Are you okay?" He said, reaching out to pat her back, then stopping, not entirely sure what to do. He'd caused her this discomfort, hadn't he? Maybe he should just get away and give her some space.

"Fine," she said. "I'm fine, Seth, don't worry. I asked for it." She gave him a small smile, straightened up, and wiped her brow. "I just... Well, I assume since I can sort of sense these threads because of my visions, I can also feel it when you try to pry into my brain. Most people probably can't sense it when you reach out to their emotions. How often have you done this?"

"Not much," Seth said. "Probably only a few times, but I haven't tried it much since that time I lost control."

"I assume you don't have much control?" Jenna said, with a small smile. Seth shook his head. He knew he could reach and feel emotions if he wanted to, but once there, he had a hard time getting back out and realizing, or remembering, what was going on. When he reached out to feel a person's emotions, so far he'd found it fascinating and couldn't get out. That is, except the first time he'd discovered it, when he'd found it so weird he retreated as quickly as he could.

"Maybe we should change that," Jenna said. "Seth, you have immense strength, particularly considering you've only just started doing this. I could only just barely get you out, and I've surfed through powers like this my entire life. I mean, I've gone through dreams and visions, and emotions is something I've never seen, but the concept of control seems the same. I couldn't control you, but I could push you away—barely. I bet if you practiced this, there would come a point I couldn't even do that."

Seth couldn't help but chortle. "You shouldn't tell me that," he said.

Jenna smiled. "I trust you. You can't control your power right now, but if we work on it, I think you can get stronger and gain control over it, so that you don't get overwhelmed like you did that one day."

"What if I don't want to? What if I want nothing to do with this...what do you call it, power?"

Jenna thought for a moment. Finally she said, "I don't think you have a choice. I've only seen threads and power and strength like this in Jeremiah, and my mother, and few others with the special power from the Fae."

She paused, and Seth thought he knew what she'd say next. He didn't particularly want to hear it, but she seemed to want to say it, so he let her go ahead.

"I don't know how, but Seth, somehow you must be royalty."