Sure enough as the days past and the group moved closer and closer to the rendezvous point Cienn's face brightened and he began to get excited about things again. The first time he flipped a rock with his mind, or the first time he made himself get a psychic flash, all from the help of his ancestor's book. He progressed at a surprisingly quick rate, reading the book over and over again. Many of their evenings he would spend quietly absorbed in between the pages. The beaches were becoming rockier as they continued up the coast, and there came a point that they had to risk returning to the road, or else risk their horses' legs.
Cienn couldn't figure Kain out. One minute he would be stoic and reserved, the next jumping off a hundred foot cliff into the ocean bellow. He apparently really liked to pull pranks on his friends and companions, and many a morning Cienn found himself strung up, hot sauce in his morning tea, or all the saddles put on backwards. It was enough to drive one mad, even if Charna changed things with a snap most times. One afternoon as they moved back to the road to avoid a particularly rocky part of the coastline, Charna and Cienn's horses suddenly shied as they crossed the ditch on their side of the road. Kain stayed Aludaria and turned back to look at his companions.
"What's wrong guys?" he asked innocently. Charna already had her hands on her hips, Cienn's were crossed over his chest. Both had angry, frustrated glares on their faces.
"Take the shield down Kain," Charna demanded. She looked about ready to explode at something, the past few days had been particularly rough on the young mage, and at any excuse she would let loose on Kain. Kain and Aludaria's only response was for Kain to giggle like a madman and Aludaria to prance a quick jig that kicked up dust from the roadbed.
"What's the matter guys? Can't get on the road?" Kain asked with failing conviction, his words dissolving into masses of giggles. Aludaria was snorting and whinnying, her tail flicking in delight. Charna just rolled her eyes at the pair and sighed. Cienn led his horse back a few steps as she began to trace glowing lines that matched markings on her arms in the air. Before she could finish them though and dissolve Kain's shield they all heard a sharp baying from the west along the road.
"Crown Patrols!" Kain shouted, tapping a mark on the back of his neck that apparently dissolved the shield. They all turned their mounts and raced back into the forest and away from the sounds.
"What is that?" Cienn asked as they galloped.
"Sniffers on our trail," Charna spat in Kain's direction. "They must have smelled our little 'shenanigans' back there." She said with so much sarcasm Cienn was surprised the words had even formed they sounded so fake to him. Kain just blushed a deep red and urged Aludaria onward.
By the grace of some God they outran the beasts and their masters, and settled down on a secluded beach surrounded by tall white cliffs. They even risked a small fire, since the only way in or out of the bay had been where they came in, and with Aludaria and Alcana sleeping at the mouth, there was very little chance of anyone getting in. The silence at dinner that night was palpable. Charna glared daggers at Kain from across the fire, who at least had the decency to look defeated.
"I'm sorry alright?!" he said angrily to her stares, which made Cienn look up from his reading about telepathy.
"It's not about 'sorry' Kain," Charna said in a surprisingly calm voice, which Cienn thought made it sound all that much more degrading. "You risked our safety in a major way. And more importantly you risked Cienn's. You should know as well as anyone that we don't have any sort of victory without him. How could you be so reckless?"
"It was just a joke Charna! Don't take it so seriously." Kain said angrily, standing.
"Well it was serious Kain," she replied, her own voice raising finally. "Why can't you see that?" Instead of responding, Kain turned and walked angrily away from the fire. Charna sighed and turned back to the fire. Cienn sat there a moment, staring at the closed book in his hands intently before he stood and stalked off into the darkness after Kain.
He found the young mage sitting on a tall rock on an outcropping in the gloom. Cienn began climbing out to him, which quickly proved to be more complex then he'd imagined with the dark, the damp of the recently receded tide and the sliminess of the seaweeds clinging to the rocks. Finally he reached the mage, slightly out of breath and wetter than he would have liked. Kain refused to acknowledge him, instead tossing a rock out into the bay, waiting silently for the resounding ker-PLOP as it broke the water's surface.
"Did Charna send you to chide me some more?" he asked Cienn then, pushing his knees up under his chin and wrapping his arms tightly around his legs.
"No, I wanted to see if you were ok." Cienn responded calmly, pulling himself up to the top of the rock and folding his legs underneath him. They sat in silence a while longer before Kain began to speak again.
"I lost my parents when I was 6." He said, staring out into the sea. Cienn sat silently behind him, trying to let Kain get out whatever was bothering him. "They were mages too, and truly believed in our cause. They died in a raid on Undelm. Those who survived say they fought together until the very end, back to back. After that my mentor, Kakuri Shieldsworn, raised me. She was the greatest shield mage of her day, and took me under her wing." He fell silent a minute, and Cienn wondered if he might be done. "I never forgot what the Crown took from me though, even after I received my Fourth rank and became the Head of the Rebellion. Kadesh and his throne took from me something that no child should go without, the love of his parents. And I won't rest until the Crown has paid me what I am due." He turned to Cienn then finally; his face more serious than the boy had ever seen it.
"That is why you can't doubt my drive to see the end of this Cienn. And why I'm truly sorry I put our mission in danger, and most importantly you. I would never want to risk your life Cienn, and I swear I won't let my joking get in the way of our mission again." Kain dropped his head to his chest, clearly ashamed of his actions. The moon finally rose above the eastern cliffs, casting a gentle blue light across his stricken features. Cienn leaned forward and placed his hand calmly atop Kain's.
"I never doubted you Kain. I know what you want, and I know you were just trying to liven up what is honestly a very terrifying flight." Kain looked up then, and Cienn marveled in the site of his deep blue eyes, the reflection of the wide moon glinting back at him from their depths.
"Thank you Cienn," Kain said then, turning his hand around to clasp about the younger lads. He squeezed gently and smiled, and Cienn started to see the transformation of his eyes as they lit up with an inner light once more. He blushed and looked away, his stomach alight with butterflies. He snatched back his hand, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"Don't mention it Kain. We have to stick together, now more than ever. If we're ever to reach this illusive safe point of yours, we have to be able to rely on each other right?" he looked back up then, smiling in a way that he hoped wouldn't allude to his fluttering stomach.
"Of course." Kain said, then stood with a bound of energy more attune to the personality Cienn knew, and offered the boy his hand. "Come on, lets go see if Charna cooked us up something good for dinner."
The following day rose bright and sunny. Masses of cheerful cumulus clouds skated across the edges of the landscape, pushed along by unseen winds. Cienn woke feeling surprisingly refreshed, and they left their camp with a fluidity that hadn't existed among their group before. Perhaps we're developing that dance they talk about in books. How campers develop a subconscious system to put up and take down their tents. Cienn thought as he mounted his horse.
Maybe, Charna said as she stretched up from strapping the last of her buckles to her saddlebags. I think we're just in a hurry honestly. She continued, and it was then that Cienn noticed that her mouth was moving. He stood there, mouth agape, as her thoughts flitted in and out of his mind like so many morning doves.
Don't think so loud next time pretty boy. Cienn heard the voice of Kain inside his head. Aludaria whickered in glee at the young medium's surprised face. Didn't know you could project your thoughts huh? Try chapter 27. Kain continued to think in Cienn's direction, then turned Aludaria about and walked her up the trail. Cienn scrambled in his saddlebags and pulled out Matters of the Mind and turned to the suggested chapter. The chapter was about the mental channel of Telepathy, and the use of it both consciously and subconsciously. As they all settled into a travel pace for the day, Cienn propped the book up on his saddle horn and read:
"On the channel of Telepathy many mediums pay little mind, but they don't realize the true potential of its might. A good Telepath can plant thoughts into the mind of an unsuspecting individual, read the thoughts of those allied against oneself, pick and choose the memories of an individual like so many pieces of cheese. Telepathy is both the easiest and the hardest of channels to master, it is the easiest channel for our minds to wrap themselves around and therefore the hardest to control. Telepathy involves nothing else than the creation of thought, that which the mind does naturally. The Telepath Doerken Alternine said of young Telepath's:
'The mind of a young Telepath is a two-way thoroughfare. His thoughts spread out to those around him like molasses on a tabletop, catching the thoughts of others into his own mind with unconscious ease.'
While I cannot say it with such eloquence, his image of a Telepath's mind in its earliest stages is certainly accurate. Untrained Telepaths are quite literally open books. Their thoughts are open for anyone paying attention to read, and likewise they pick up the thoughts on others without conscious work. It can be both a blessing and a curse for Mediums whom have the open channel. The first and foremost thing a new Telepath can do is to learn meditation and the blocking of one's mind to protect themselves and those around them from what they could possibly do."
Cienn read until the sun was well past noon and they had stopped to water the horses and eat a quick lunch of cheese and apples picked from a nearby wild tree. Cienn closed his book with reverent care and after shoving some cheese and slices of apples Kain had cut up into his mouth, retreated to a rock at the other end of the glade near the stream. He sat as comfortably as he could, as Kendalin had suggested, and with a deep breath closed his eyes and attempted for the first time to grapple with his Telepathy.
He looked within himself and saw behind his eyelids a sort of flow of light and energy inside him. It formed itself into four different rivers of light, and Cienn began to understand why Kendalin kept referring to the four parts of mind magic as "channels". His channels seems like raging, untamed rivers, tumbling through his body and mind and then back out into the world as the rivers enter the sea. It was a fascinating image, and he wondered if Cerenae could paint it for him someday, he couldn't really draw to save his life.
As his thoughts rambled the image of his channels began to recede, and he could feel the magic slipping out of his mental fingers like rats in a box. A small crease appeared above his brow and he returned his concentration fully to his magic. It was beautiful, and clearly powerful. Far more powerful than he'd thought before. He was shocked to find out truly how strong he was, and grateful he hadn't broken out before he had. As he swam through the energy flows of his mind he began to notice slight differences in his channels. While still strong, his Empathy channel was far weaker than the other three, and his Telepathic channel wasn't very strong either. He pulled himself out of his explorations, knowing they would have to get back on the road soon, and proceeded to build up a wall, brick by imaginary brick, around his mind. Protecting himself from external attacks, yet still leaving holes for him to extend outward at need.
Finished, he stood and stretched back. He was happy to see that the sun had barely moved, and that Charna and Kain were ready to move again. They mounted up and got back onto the road.
"If we keep this pace up we should be there before sundown tomorrow." Charna said, turning around to look at the studious young medium behind her. "Cienn put that book down, all you've done is read since we started out. Relax for a moment, enjoy the day. There won't be many more like this all too soon." Cienn closed his book with a frown and kicked his horse to catch up with Charna's. Kain and Aludaria were behind having some secret Mage-Familiar conversation Cienn was honestly a little jealous of, especially since the pair of them would emit low giggles and whinnies at various intervals.
"So Cienn, tell me about what it's like in the capitol." Cienn told Charna of his life in the city, the bustling streets, the noise and the pageantry of his High Court neighborhood. He also told her of their gardens and the parties they hosted in the summer months. She listened with a soft smile on her face as he told her about a time when Cerenae had dumped him into one of the streams in their back gardens, and how he had in turn turned her off her horse into the manure pile behind the barn a week later.
"What about you Charna? How did you end up with the rebellion? I don't know anyone who has a name quite like yours. Charna of Idaine." He said with a questioning air. Charna's face faltered a moment and she turned to face the road. He thought that he had gone too far, brought up something she wouldn't speak of but then she spoke.
"I was born in Durchall, on the border near Swadan. My mother was what you would call a Baroness of Idaine, and I was to be her heir. I was fourteen when the Crown attacked our holding. I watched the captain of the guard behead my mother while she stood over me, trying to protect me. I had run up to the tallest tower of the keep and was cowering in the room clutching the crown of my family that I'd stolen before they could take it when this massive black bird landed in the window. It was then that the guards broke in behind me and I thought I was dead. But the bird spoke, she said-" Alcana flew down and landed on Charna's saddle horn and supplied:
"All will be well Charna of Idaine. You have been graced with a gift few of this world can call their own. Call upon your magic, and banish these braggarts from your home." The phoenix-Familiar coughed into her wing then in an almost embarrassed manner. "I was a bit of a dramatic back then." She said sheepishly, which gave Cienn a giggle. Charna started to stroke the familiar's neck, and seemed to gain some kind of strength and inner calm from the motion as she continued her story.
"As she spoke something came over me. I felt like I'd blacked out, but I remember everything clearly. I traced a rune in the air, I learned later that it was a blast rune, and the door and wall that the battalion had come in through was thrown back from me and out into the air. I escaped the castle I'd known all my life and made the long journey to the training grounds of western mages, the temple city of Rodari. Which also happens to be the main holding of the rebel forces." She turned to Cienn then and smiled softly. "It is after all the city of magic." They rode on to the brink of dusk, making camp in the semi-gloom. They were close to a Crown outpost and couldn't risk a fire, so dinner was cold and rather tasteless. They fell asleep to the sound of owls in the forest around them, the soft rush of the surf against the beach, and the far distant clink of the forges from the outpost.
Cienn awoke with a start the next morning as the cold point of metal pressed against his throat. As his eyes adjusted to the early morning light he saw a gruesome, dirty face of a man, his mouth twisted in an angry snarl.
"Well, well, well," he drawled, "looks like sleeping beauty is awake now ain't she?" Cienn heard the bass chuckle of other men and with very little squirming he was able to look over and see a trussed up and unconscious Charna being tossed unceremoniously into the barrel of a rowboat. The familiar's were out of his limited line of sight, but he figured Alcana must also be unconscious or she would be attacking her partner's captors. Kain was in a similar position across the campsite, another dirty man holding a knife out at his throat. Cienn extended the tendrils of his mind out and touched at Kain's consciousness.
I suppose this is as good a way to wake up as any. He thought with heavy sarcasm. He saw Kain cough in humor before he responded.
A little to rough for my taste honestly. What should we do?
Simple. They clearly don't know we have magic or they would have brought Sniffers with them. Lets take them out. Without further thought or planning Cienn struck out with his telekinesis, sending his would be captor across the beach into a tree with the satisfying crack of breaking wood. Kain uttered a quick phrase of his own and the man who had him pinned began floating away in what appeared to be a pale green bubble. He floated up about ten feet in the air and rested there, bouncing about at the tips of the trees. Cienn and Kain raced over to Charna in the boat, her captors having cut their losses and run for safety. They untied their friend and brought her back to her bedroll. She was regaining consciousness as they laid her down.
"How?" she asked groggily, the end extending out into a low moan of pain.
"How did they knock you out? That's a question I'd like answered myself." Kain asked as he pulled out water and a cloth to lie across her forehead. After that he rolled up his sleeves and traced a short set of runes on his left arm, muttering in the vague ancient language of the mages. Charna's eyes became clearer as he spoke, and once he was finished she sat up, apparently healed.
"I don't know. One minute Alcana and I were getting ready to wake you guys, and the next was blackness. They must've come up in the boat, we were only looking at the forest where the road is. I'm sorry." She hung her head ashamedly. Cienn reached out and lifted her chin so she could look at his face. He smiled.
"You have nothing to apologize for. They must have been a seriously crafty lot to get the best of you." He held her chin until she'd offered back a wan smile of her own. Satisfied, Cienn went off to tie up his unconscious attacker.
"He might be able to do this after all," Charna said as she and Kain watched him walk away. "He might really be able to be King." Kain only frowned.
They tied up their would-be captors and pushed them out to sea in their little boat. They resumed once more their long, arduous trek to this mystery safe point Kain and Charna kept alluding too. The two of them assured Cienn that they were indeed close to the end of this leg of their journey, and he could feel an increase of their pace that suggested just that. Aludaria and Kain had pulled up to the front, the horse familiar eager for an honest rest. Cienn guessed that carrying Kain around day after day would certainly make one tired. His and Charna's mounts fell into step again, and soon they were talking of all manner of things. Cienn told her more about the parties among the nobility he used to attend on a regular basis; boating on the willow water in his backyard, and wandering through the gardens of the Royal Palace. In return Charna told him of the temples and chambers of the once proud city of Rodari, and the spanning ruins of Bylis high in the Skytouch Mountains to the south. Cienn was fascinated about all of this, how strong and secret magic had stayed through the many years of oppression in Sundast.
"Have you ever seen the prophecy Charna?" Cienn asked her at length, staring at his hands as they held his horse's reins. She was silent a moment as she thought, and then replied.
"Once. Every mage student must spend a season at Bylis, learning of the magic of the Elementals and to study the Chambers of Time."
"What are the Chambers of Time?" Cienn asked. Charna chuckled at his enthusiasm for knowledge.
"It is said that the greatest Mediums of the ages, at the hands of the Gods themselves carved the walls of the deepest caverns of the ruins of Bylis. They are said to foretell the greatest accomplishments and failings of man throughout the ages. At the very end of the chambers there was a prophecy. That selfsame prophecy I told you. For centuries no one knew what it meant but when the Adessa's took the throne 150 years ago and we were pushed out from Sundast it became clear. The prophecy was telling of our return. So they cut out the stone the Prophecy was carved into and mounted it at the entrance to the caverns, as a beacon of hope amidst these darkest years." She turned in her saddle to face Cienn fully, her face suddenly very grave.
"This is the first chance magic has had to return to its true home Cienn, we can't mess it up." Cienn gulped at her severity, and noticing it she smiled reassuringly. "But don't worry, we'll help you every step of the way. Right Kain?" she called up to their daring leader ahead of them. He started out of whatever rumination his brain had been concocting and looked back at his companions.
"What?" he asked befuddled.
"Nothing!" Cienn shouted back with overly playful conviction. Charna sniggered. Even Alcana seemed to find the scene amusing. Cienn flashed Charna a reassuring smile and kicked his horse to catch up with Kain and Aludaria.
"No really, what?" Kain asked him as his horse sidled up along side him. Cienn just chuckled and shook his head.
"Really, it was nothing. So where are we going anyways?" he asked, attempting to derail the conversation. Kain got a wicked look on his face and smirked.
"You don't tell me what you two said, I don't tell you where we're going." Cienn sputtered a moment at the declaration before his fumbling tongue would let him form words.
"But what? That's not fair!" he exclaimed to Kain's ready laughter. The mage let his chuckle last a little too long, Cienn fuming in his saddle.
"Hey," Kain said once he'd calmed. "You asked for it pretty boy." Cienn bristled further at the demeaning pet name. "But don't get your knickers in a twist, I wasn't going to tell you anyways." And with that he leaned over and playfully tweaked Cienn's anger reddened nose. "I want to keep it a surprise." Kain finished with a flourish and a cocky grin. Cienn fumed silently a moment longer before he turned his horse and went back to Charna.
Cienn remained his silent vigil against Kain for the rest of the day. After a while even he began to wonder why he was still so silent to the young mage. It wasn't as if he was doing anything new, but just the thought of talking to Kain brought a fresh flush to his cheeks (though admittedly Cienn wasn't sure if it was do to the supposed transgression or if it was something more frightening, like a crush). So he stayed silent for the rest of the day and the next, slogging through his frustrated emotions just as their horses began to slog through the muck and mire they were now traversing.
The land here was apparently much closer to sea level than the coast they had been following before, which lead to great swaths of tall grasses in thick, smelly mud crisscrossing through the low hills. It was beautiful country to look at, but difficult to cover with horses since the roads they were avoiding here were usually raised above the grass beds. Still they trudged on and as they settled down for the night Kain announced that they would walk into their destination in the morning, pointedly keeping the name or nature of the place out of the conversation.
"Why can't you just tell me?" Cienn asked as he helped Charna build a fire ring, both mages agreed that they were within some safe border that kept them far enough from Crown patrols to risk a final fire before they ended this stage of their journey.
"Because you won't share your own secrets pretty boy." Kain retorted quickly, crossing his arms for emphasis and holding probably the smuggest face Cienn had ever seen. Cienn bristled once more.
"Don't call me that!" he practically shouted, and only a calming hand from Charna on his shoulder stalled his rising. He frowned and sat back onto the ground with a flop.
"He's kind of right Cienn," Charna said, turning back to the fire pit and leaving Cienn with quite the astonished features. Charna continued, "I mean, you've heard about both of our histories with the Crown. What about your life? How did we find you anyways?"
Cienn was baffled. "I thought you all had spies on me and my family for years, what do you mean you don't know what I did?" Kain shrugged.
"Getting any kind of spy into a city that's running with sniffer handlers and the center of the One's religious order, the Papal seat of the Eye, is hard enough Cienn. There's really not many left over to watch a single noble family. Wards were placed on your home centuries ago, they're the same ones the Crown uses now to keep itself safe from magical attacks." Cienn found it strange that the Crown used magic when they said they despised it. Kain must have seen this in his face because he chuckled, taking a seat onto the ground as Charna lit the fire with a magical spark. It roared up quickly against the surprisingly dry tinder, lighting their camp with a gentle yellow glow.
"Yes Cienn, the One isn't stupid, she wouldn't deny 'her people'," - he put his fingers up in a sort of scrunching motion, as if he was quoting the very air the words were spoken into - "the protections against the strength of magic. She instructed her Order that the old wards were replaced with stronger ones built upon the peoples' faith in her, when in reality she just left the old ones there. It's very hard to get in or perform magic inside the castle walls, so most of our spies are useless there. So no we didn't really have people watching your every move." He finished with that same smug look that said to Cienn, 'alright now time to spill your secrets pretty boy,' better than anything else Kain could have actually said. Cienn sighed and looked down at his hands.
Memories of a few days ago flooded back to him as he sat there, the only sound the crackle of the fire, and the soft hum of what Cienn could only guess was magic emanating from the familiars sleeping at the fringe of light. He realized that the events in the city were really only a few days past, and there was still so much he had yet to really process. He patiently rifled through the memories, trying to find a way to explain to his new friends what had led him here. He thought of Gerall and the months before his betrayal that had seemed like a fairy tale dream. He thought of Tenur lying limp underneath the pile of rubble and books, and the look on his mothers face as she saw what he had done.
"The Crown took everything that had ever been good in my life. They twisted every happy memory I have and made it dark. Even when I thought I had finally figured out who I was and what my life was leading up too, even then it was all a lie they had thought up for me." Tears spilled down his cheeks, but his voice was calm and steady as he stared at his fire lit hands. And then he told them about Gerall and what he had thought they had found together, and how he had felt when he heard Gerall was dead. He continued to cry softly through the entire telling, the hatred and anger welling up inside him, buoyed onward by an even deeper wave of crushing sadness. Kain and Charna listened silently at first, but when they both noticed he was crying they took his hands in theirs and squeezed them gently.
It felt as if their touch opened a channel in his mind for his frustrations to flow through and he could feel his sadness and anger seeping away through Charna and Kain and into the ground, leaving all three of them behind. They let him in to share his pain, and as he felt the hurt leave his body he saw that they understood. All three of them were united in the fact that the Crown had hurt them, forced them to grow up far before their time. With the last of his tears Cienn felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders. As if a giant bird had been roosting there and had suddenly decided a midnight flight through the treetops would be a better use of his time. He looked up at Charna and Kain and noticed the streaks tears had left along their own faces. He snatched his hands back.
"I'm sorry." He said meekly into his chest, ashamed that he had hurt them that much. Kain scooted over and lifted his chin with a gentle hand.
"Don't be," the mage said kindly. "You needed to feel that Cienn, and we were happy to help you through that." Charna came over as well and took his hand.
"Yeah, no one should sit with that much pain inside them for very long Cienn." She said with a comforting smile. Cienn cracked a weak one in return.
"Thank you," he whispered at them through a sigh. As the last of his breath left his lips he gasped, his eyes flashing a brilliant white against the darkness of the night.
He saw Cerenae alone in her bedroom, sitting at her vanity and staring at her hands. She raised one up to the mirror palm out and scrutinized it. Her nose crinkled in thought as she stared at her palm, trying to figure something out it seemed. She turned suddenly and slashed her arm through the air, staring at a vase of flowers on the table across the room. It slid off the table and shattered onto the floor, leaving a spreading puddle of water and shards of pottery. Shaking Cerenae turned back to the mirror, her eyes on her hand. As she looked up into the mirror she gasped, and Cienn saw that he could see himself in the reflection. Their eyes locked and he saw tears brim in Cerenae's eyes.
"How?" she asked, holding her hand out to his reflection. He lifted his own hand trying to touch her too, to close the hundreds of miles of distance between them. Cerenae's face broke as she looked at him, "Oh Cienn I -" she started to say, turning around quickly in her chair to embrace him.
Instead she left Cienn back in the fire lit glow of his campsite with Kain and Charna, both of them looking at him with increasingly inquisitive faces.
"What did you see?" Kain asked. Cienn explained it to them.
"H-how is that possible? That she could see me?" the mages didn't know. Cienn pushed them aside as he rose and grabbed Matters of the Mind from his saddlebags. He was beginning to get the hang of this book. It seemed that in addition to being an expansive tomb on the knowledge of mind magic, it itself was also bespelled to aid the learner in its discoveries. Kendalin actually explained many of the books properties in chapter 7. It offered interactive diagrams and other educational tools to the receptive mind of a burgeoning young medium that picked it up. Cienn was honestly fascinated in how this could have been created, and had wondered if his companions knew of its secrets. The most useful feature was its ability to index itself at the behest of the readers mind. Cienn simply had to focus and ask the book to take him to examples of his question.
He knelt next to his saddlebags and held the book flat in his open palms. He took a few deep, steadying breaths to calm himself, closing his eyes in concentration.
"What just happened?" he asked under his breath, fueling the question with the memories of his vision. The book slapped open into his other palm, the pages rifling in an unseen magical wind as it referenced the event with the knowledge in its pages. It settled first onto a page very early in the book. Cienn read.
"The beginnings of visions were first recorded in the 2nd century H.A. The channeler Alvirde... Nope, next." Cienn instructed the book. Its next reference was more informative.
"Shared visions are common among mediums who have both the precognitive and telepathic channels. Most often physical contact is needed for one visionary to pass his premonitions onto another, or for them both to combine their strengths to delve further into the murky recesses of the past and future. But it has been noted that in some instances strong visions can be shared amongst mediums at great distances, especially if the mediums share blood or some other strong bond."
So I shared my vision with Cerenae then? Cienn asked himself and looked at the book once more. Its pages rifled a little more, and settled on another passage.
"Occasionally," it read:
"Occasionally when a strong medium has a vision of another in the present or even sometimes the future, the medium in question can tap into the magic being used on them and catch a glimpse of the farseer catching sight of them. It has been recorded as being most common in reflections and in dreams, which distort the perspective of sight naturally and allowing for the glimpse."
Cienn sat back and looked up at the stars. Cerenae was a medium too, and she didn't have the luck of being far away from the dangers of the Crown and the Order nor did she have the teachings of Kendalin in his book. She was alone and frightened and he could do nothing to help her understand this. He felt like a fool and a coward, though he did find some wry humor in the turn of events of the evening. He closed his eyes and whispered into the night, hoping his thoughts would carry across the land on unseen winds and into the dreams of his twin.
"It's ok Cer, I know you can do this." He had no way of knowing if his words actually would reach her, but he felt better simply saying them aloud, and knew that if nothing else his positive energy would help turn the tides in her favor in the long run. Besides, there was no way Majran and the Gods would let his sister die right?
Reassured slightly, though perhaps not enough to give him a very comfortable night's sleep, he crawled into his bedroll silently for bed.