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What was Harvest Adams?
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I DIDN'T KNOW what to think anymore.
I was worried about, well at this point pretty much everything that had happened earlier. The first memory I allowed
myself to carefully review without wanting to scream into a pillow was Raskei.
My heart beat roughly within me, as I thought of all that happened in that 'chamber.'
I wanted to review what she had seen, and how much of it had been enough for her to potentially know my secret, but of all the flashes, only one thing she had said got to me.
I have a dilect.
I stared out into the nothingness of my room, heart a hard beat within me. She said I had used the chamber all on my own before.
I remembered the exact moment I had quite well.
It was a chamber I cast when I fell from the sky trying to reach out to my mother. It was how she could hear a voice, it was how I spoke.
Mama. The first word I ever said.
My throat ran dry. Until now I always thought it had been a trick of the mind. That moment had just been created in my subconscious, a sort of illusion.
But I had done it. I had spoken something.
That meant that I was unspoken.
That somehow I had a dilect.
Right? Could That be right?
It was the only explanation for it. Only an explanation is available.
I glanced down at my hands and my body. I certainly didn't feel any different at all, but I felt my heart beat faster at the mere possibility that I may be able to conjure illusions like Claire or manipulate reflections with Mirror magic like Thandi, or anything else that reds were capable of.
I shifted in bed staring at the pebble on my desk. It sat there emotionless and void.
The only way I could be sure of that was if I could somehow complete the exercise Miss Almulese had given us in class. If I could move the stone- that would be proof enough.
My breath hitched at the thought as I sat up straighter, staring directly at the dull pebble. I shut my eyes sucking in breath.
Just a slight movement would do the trick.
I opened my eyes again, glancing at the other end of the desk. That was where I would aim.
My gaze narrowed, focusing as hard as I could.
I must have spent close to five minutes and yet no matter how hard I concentrated it just didn't want to budge.
Frustrated I shifted away in bed, grabbing my blanket and throwing it over my head, inaudible screaming into my sheets.
Frustration oozed in every vein and those awful thoughts that I was only human, that I was ordinary as I have always been returned into my mind. This was ridiculous!
I threw the blankets away sitting back up. I felt dull on the inside, but my mind flashed back to the chamber. I had bigger problems ahead of me.
Every scene.
Raskei had seen it all.
She had seen me falling from the plane, she had seen and heard me call tom mom, she had seen my mother in the hospital and Gravis asking me to not let anyone know of my identity.
Luckily I had managed to cut it off before she found out who I truly was.
But would it be easy for her to piece together who I was? From what Gravis had said, no one had seen my Father before and even Lucas who had claimed had met him face to face couldn't remember him that well.
Lucas had an amazing memory. If he didn't know, I don't think Raskei would.
I tried to keep my mind optimistic, there was no way they could just arrive at that conclusion all by themselves, without any further clues could she?
Furthermore, I didn't even want to think about it but had she told Harvest of what she had seen?
Who was I kidding? She must have. Why would she hide it?
By the time I had come to it was already too late, she had already left and Harvest was seated there instead.
He said I had been out for more than ten minutes. Plenty of time for her to give him a full update.
I would just die if Harvest was the first one to figure it out!
My heart rattled in my chest at the thought of him. To make
matters worse, He was now aware that I didn't know anything about my Dilect, (not including that I was unsure if I had one) which was a huge giveaway too.
Harvest believed I had a dilect too. I thought about it for a moment. He could be wrong- but something told me he was very rarely wrong.
I fell back into my sheets staring up at the ceiling.
I couldn't understand him at all. He was just so-
I couldn't put him to words.
At the start of it all, He was so cold and creepy and dark but today, dare I say it, he seemed to be trying to talk.
Like he actually wanted a conversation. Like he wanted me to be less afraid of him. That's the only way I could explain it. Why else would be so nice - well, as closest to nice as a person as Harvest can get- all of a sudden?
I remembered how easily I got mad and let him have it.
My heart pounded within me but the ghost of a smile graced my lips. It was a stupid move but- brave? I stood up for myself.
Three weeks ago I would have never had the guts to do it, or even thought he would react that way.
I pulled my blankets tighter around me, and turned over to my side, a ghost of a smile still against my lips as I shut my eyes-
Then-
Words echoed in my memories, his face, the soft wind in the air through his dark curls, his voice, his tone, his accent
'And they asked me...do you love her to death?"
He had quoted as I stared back at him in confusion, eyebrows drawn, and yet I felt calm as the gentle breeze blew a gentle hum between us,
"And I said, speak of her over my grave and watch how she brings me back to life-"
I could feel a cold shiver travel back up my back and I bit my lip,
"for if the devil himself was ever to see her, "
His breathing had been low and so close to me, those- those eyes set in mine, his voice barely above a soft whisper
"he would kiss her eyes and repent."
I suddenly sat up in bed, breathing slowly and shaking my head. I wasn't going to wrap myself up in his silky words. Heck, they hadn't even been his words.
It was all a trick! A game. He was...unusual like that.
I rubbed my arms a frown edged on my face.
And yet, he had spoken them like they had been crafted from his very soul.
My bare feet grazed the cold ground and I savored the feeling of being grounded back to reality.
I stood, moving towards the half-open windows, drawing my nightgown around me tighter about to close them when I spotted movement coming from the trees.
I watched the shadow move in The King's Garden, the low steady beat of my heart inside me waiting for the figure to reveal itself even though my mind already knew who it was before my eyes confirmed.
Harvest.
My breath hitched against my lips as I watched him walk through the shadows until he walked into the one spot where the faint moonlight had successfully touched.
Then he stopped.
My eyebrows arched at this, leaning forward for a bit.
My heart stopped when he turned, and my eyes met his icy blue ones for a moment
And at that moment I drew in a breath that refused to exhale, his gaze directly on mine. He was so far and yet he could still hold me prisoner for a few seconds, before his gaze drifted off, walking off into the night.
He was out of sight but I still found it hard to breathe in the shock.
"You're scared of him," Raskei's voice echoed in my mind, "and you don't even know half of the things he is capable of-"
I robotically turned to close the windows, got into my sheets, and stared at the darkness above me one more time.
I noticed something. Something strange clicked.
Raskei hadn't even looked surprised when she saw the memories I had of him, from his wings to swimming with the sirens.
She was giving me a warning.
She knew what Harvest was capable of, and if someone as fearful as Raskei seemed to be careful of Harvest it had to be for a good reason.
He wasn't only a mind reader. How did he do that to the siren? Why did he have wings he hid from everyone?
What was Harvest Adams?
I gritted my teeth. Perhaps Gravis deserved to know. But what would I tell him? I had broken a thousand and one of his rules already.
Would I tell him I'm scared? Tell him I venture into the restricted area. Despite it all, Harvest had saved my life from the siren, had he wanted me dead, he could have left me there. And though he said his reasons were ABSOLUTELY SELFISH, how would they have tied it all to him?
No- he was right.
This was a game and I needed to know what I was going up against. Prove to both Gravis, Mom and Dad, and even myself that I could handle some things on my own.
Harvest said he was already, 'winning the game'
The very game I chose to play.
But I had to level the playing field.
Sure, I had only seen glimpses of what he was capable of but I did not know what he could do exactly. I needed to protect myself from him and I could only do that by knowing what he was and what he could do.
And finding hard proof of it.
Maybe then, I could in turn use that as leverage over him and he would finally get off my back.
Yes, that would be best.
After all, what could he possibly be hiding that he didn't want the world to see? Could it be possibly that bad?
I shook my head reaching out and grabbing my notebook. I had to write everything I knew about him so far, every single clue, everything he had ever said to me that could be helpful.
I began from the first day we met, jotting down his ability to calm down sirens which were natural predators.
I had always tied this with his mind control dilect, and for now, that was where it would remain.
I jotted down how he was able to speak to me through his mind a whole field away, across the arena. How the siren had hissed its name.
He had said sirens can't read and merely see the desires of our hearts and offer them to us, so that may have not been a solid clue but I wasn't going to overlook it.
I jotted down how dark his eyes went, when he stared at me from across a frickin lake, repeating themselves whenever his wings were out.
That never happened when he was mind-reading.
I paused- could he have two dilects maybe? That would explain his bipolar behavior.
How he could be mean one second and then slightly more manageable the next. Of course, I added the little incident about literally disintegrating a siren a few feet away from me and healing me somehow.
If I was to put all these together I would say he was a combination of at least four colors.
Flight- Silver
Mind reading- yellow
The siren thing- probably an orange- something about energies and elements
Changing eyes- that had to be the freaky greens.
I stared down at the list, not forgetting the slight fact that he drew me out of Omkara's mind prison too. I sighed reading through the list one more time. I had to rip it out of the book. Harvest was getting more and more unpredictable- who knows when he would magically find his hands on my poor notebook once again and then he would know I was on to him.
I was about to tear the page out when my eyes caught a glimpse of something else between the covers. My eyebrows furrowed as I flipped the pages toward the end of my book.
I looked at the shades on it, my mind flashing back to the training room, just as I brought myself out of the chamber. When I had come too Harvest had my notebook.
Harvest seemed to have been drawing something. Something like-
My heart knocked softly within me as I pushed the covers off me, standing up and holding the book horizontally, the page crossing moonlight-
It was a drawing of me, standing there, in the middle of the combat room with my eyes shut, hair wild, staring out into nothingness, the shades drawn intricately, shaded as if it took a whole lot of time.
I closed the book pursing my lips. My heart started its marathon inside me and my fingers stilled.
Whatever game he was playing, I wasn't sure I was capable of winning.
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