Chapter Fourteen
Pyrrhic Victory
He smiled at me tenderly. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He asked innocently.
Only then did I remember him saying earlier he would help me through being decontaminated. Then a horrible thought occurred to me. Please tell me he didn’t do all this just to help me through a horrible experience, I prayed.
Yes, it was bad. Very, very bad, I wanted to scream at him but I remained silent.
“Storm?”
“No. It wasn’t bad,” I lied.
I spun away from him before I could do something I would regret—like drown him in the pool. I’m an idiot, I thought to myself. Of course, a gorgeous guy like him wouldn’t go for someone like me—the tomboy alien from earth. What was I thinking?
With one heave, I lifted myself out onto the deck, not caring that he got a full frontal view of me in my birthday suit when I stood up.
“I hope you don’t mind if I borrow this again,” I said in a voice that should have frozen the entire pool. With deliberate slowness, I reached down for the robe I had discarded and slipped it on….my eyes never leaving his face.
Julius followed my movements wordlessly, cautiously. Some male preservation instinct had kicked in and alerted him to my state of mind.
I wanted to laugh at the bewildered look on his face, but I didn’t.
“I’m decontaminated.” I said icily. “Can we go now?”
I didn’t wait for him, but started towards the door with my head held high. I was proud of myself in that moment. I was Storm Weatherly again, not some cowering alien. I would not break again.
Somewhere, in a tiny aching part of my heart, I knew it was a pyrrhic victory—however, though no one would know that but me. I could live with that.
***
I knew it was going be awkward when we left the pool so I wasn’t surprised that it was worse than I figured.
By the time Julius got out of the water, his mood matched my own. He was as angry at me as I was him. You’d think I had insulted him instead of the other way around.
I accepted a dry robe and pants from him silently. He’d gotten a set for each of us out of a cupboard that was built into one side of the room. They were there for the taking on the honor system apparently. Julius didn’t really explain it, and I didn’t care. I just wanted some dry clothes. We slipped into them with backs turned and our thoughts unshared.
When he was dressed, Julius went to another cabinet and opened it. It was filled with belts of every color of the rainbow. Correction, make that every color on this planet. I didn’t know if they had rainbows here yet.
He handed a red belt to me, and took a purple one for himself.
“Why is my belt red and yours is purple?”
“Red denotes either no magical powers, or, in your case, you haven’t been tested yet. Purple is worn only by Fifth Level Wizards.”
“Wizards? Is everyone a Wizard in this place.”
Julius thought that over for a moment. “I suppose so. Everyone has magical abilities caused by the crystals. We’ve used the term wizard so long, its just part of the vocabulary here.”
He pulled out a few belts of different colors and held them up.
“The different colors denote the different levels of abilities a Wizard is able to control.”
“What do you mean by ‘abilities’?
“Like my mind-reading, for instance.”
So there it was. Out in the open. Julius could definitely read minds. It wasn’t my imagination.
“Yes, I can definitely read minds. It wasn’t your imagination,” Julius repeated my thoughts back to me out loud. “I can not only read minds, I can intrude into a mind.”
Like this, Storm.
I gasped in surprise when I felt him inside my head. Before I had time to react though, he was gone again, leaving me feeling alone in my own head.
“Intrusion is a good ability to have—in time of war. You can always know what your enemy’s intentions are.” Julius gave me a tight little smile.
“Is that what you did to my mind—back in the infirmary? An intrusion?”
Julius ran his hands through his damp hair. “No. What I did back there… It was much worse than a mere intrusion,” Julius said stiffly, his beautiful voice filled with disgust.
“I had no right, and…I….I…can only beg your forgiveness--even though I know you have no idea what I’m talking about.” Julius looked at me then, his eyes filled with pain, and something else I wasn’t expecting….shame.
“You’re right,” I blurted, tired of his double talk and hints of something sinister.
What I had felt was not bad or wrong. Some instinct I didn’t even know I possessed, practically shouted out this truth. I would not let him belittle what I’d felt. I wouldn’t let him take away the beauty of that moment.
“It’s true. I don’t know much about what really happened back there.” I got right up in Julius’ face I was so angry. “I don’t know the actual cause of what happened. But, whatever it was that I felt…I… am…not… sorry….and no one is going to make me believe it was something bad. Least of all you, who felt it too, and knows better,” I shouted the last part.
I was so close to him I could see little tiny flecks of blue in his green eyes. I could smell the scent of his body. I could feel his body’s natural warmth. He stood there with something like amazement on his face and I wondered why.
I knew I was going out on a limb here—exposing my feelings this way, but every instinct inside me shouted at me that it was the right thing to do.
Julius’ look softened then, and he seemed to debate something before he continued.
“What I did was an accident, Storm…..” Julius started to hang his head…..then raised it-- and it was like there was fire burning deep in his eyes.
His voice was a mere whisper of sound. “I will never be sorry to feel what I felt.” He paused, his breathing uneven. “Not with you, Storm. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”
Julius reached out and laid his hand on my cheek for a moment, then closed his eyes and dropped his hand. “It doesn’t lessen the fact that it was wrong….especially for you. You’re hardly more than a child.”
“I’m not a child, Julius.”
“Maybe not. But you don’t know what I am. What I am capable of.”
Now my mind was boggled. “What do you mean…I don’t know what you are? Are you telling me you are not human or something? What are you then?” I persisted.
Julius turned and hung the belts back in the cabinets. “You ask too many questions.”
Ignoring my questions, he changed the subject. “It’s against the rules to misrepresent your abilities by wearing a belt you have not yet been awarded. It is also dangerous,” he added as if our previous conversation had not taken place.
It was hard to keep up with his mood changes. But--there was that word…Dangerous. That caught my attention.
“How is it dangerous?” I asked.
“It’s the flip side of the coin—Using your abilities against a wizard with lesser powers than you, or in your case—no known abilities. If you were to go up against a wizard who was more powerful than you, I’m sure you can figure out that you would lose. That’s against the rules, too. It is also against the rules to do what I did to you today—even if it was an accident. You had no informed choice.”
“You keep saying it was an accident. I don’t understand…”
“Of course you don’t. How could you?” Julius looked away at something I couldn’t see for a moment. “You’ll be taught all about Lithian Mind Bonds soon enough.”
He looked back at me and shrugged and his mood shifted yet again. “Right now….all you need to remember is to wear a red belt only. Any other color belongs to a Wizard stronger than you, and you have no right to wear it.
Julius’ mood darkened again. It made me wonder what caused that, as I threaded the red belt through the loops built into my robe. In silence, Julius did the same with his purple one.
After closing the cabinet, we made our way out of the grotto.