Chapter 15

Rowan

I shouldn't have asked. I really, REALLY shouldn't have asked. Her eyes went distant, flickering red. She opened her mouth, but closed it again, twice.

"One day…" She snapped back to reality hazily.

"…When I have forgiven myself, I shall tell you." I took a breath of relief and cursed myself silently for my thougtlessness.

"Until then, why don't you tell me about your inner circle?" She asked, throwing me a lifeline, which I quickly took.

"What do you want to know about them?" I could talk about my friends for days if given the chance.

"How did you meet them? And what do they do?" I contemplated for a moment before answering.

"I met Seth back when I was in the army. He was really insistent on being my friend for no apparent reason, and we've been friends ever since. After I ki-… Ended my fathers reign…" I carefully looked at her to make sure my choice of words hadn't put her off, thankfully she seemed fine, looking off into the forests around us. "…I contacted him, as he was the only person I felt I could trust, immediately Seth came to my aid, pulling his troublemaker of a brother with him. That's how I met Gale. Seth oversees more or less the entire pack and everything that happens in it, he was working as a manager at his mothers company before he came here, so he does it well. Gales official position is advisor- thankfully that's not what he actually does, since any advice he gives tends to be… shortsighted, at best." Nymeria nodded as I continued speaking.

" His real position is recruiting members for our special force."

"I see." Nymeria stated as if it was obvious that we had one.

"Our special force is a bit… different from what you may have seen before. We tend to focus on recruiting people with gifts of different sorts. What do you know about gifts?" I asked, I didn't know how much was common knowledge at her time. Nymeria almost seemed to laugh at the question. She looked me in the eyes for a few moments, seeming to study me, then placed her hand in the air between us. I watched as her skin turned purple and the shape of her hand changed into a large flower, not a single sign on her face of straining.

"Wh-" I huffed. In the millennia I had lived, I had never seen… " You can control it." I got a grim smile from my mate.

"I had a lot of time in cages to practice."

Nymeria

I had shown him, one of many secrets I had kept throughout most of my life. My mothers gift. My gift.

Immediately after I showed him, he brought me to the location currently in front of me. It was in the middle of the forest at the west of the pack house, a grey, box-shaped building with vines growing all over the outer walls. Inside was small, there was only one desk where a young man sat, and a staircase heading down into the underground. Rowan conversed quickly with the man at the desk, and nodded towards the stairs. He followed me down the stairs, at the end of which there was a door. The moment I opened the door I was blinded by light. When my eyes readjusted, I saw a large bright hall with twenty-something people, who had all turned to look at us. Rowan stepped forth and looked at Gale who was standing next to a girl with a water-gun.

"Gale." Rowan stated, not too impressed with the water gun thing.

"…Yes?" Gale answered with a look on his face like he was a child found doing something odd.

*You think you can help this bunch? Teach them to handle their powers?* Rowan mind-linked me before speaking. I looked at the small crowd, full of young, intrigued eyes. I stepped forward towards them. *Very well.*

"Good day. You may call me Ethenn. I have… many years of experience when it comes to gifts, and it seems I will be helping you out in the future." It was best if they didn't know me as a person of power, they will open up easier to someone of similar status.

I turned to Rowan and smiled. "Thank you for guiding me here. I said with just a hint of dismissal in my voice, making him slightly confusedly leave the room. I'd explain it to him later that evening.

"Controlling your gift isn't the easiest task, and it would be hard, and dangerous to teach you all at the same time. Hence, Delta Gale, I will need you to pick out the… six people with the most useful gifts, I shall start with helping them." Gale looked a bit confused about my presence, but thought for a moment before saying:

"Lynn… Pete, Dezra… Accalia, Josef and Me. The rest of you can go home for now." At his words, all but a handful of people left.

"Introduce yourselves." He encouraged them, and a female in sophisticated white clothes with a matching pair of golden earrings and necklace stepped forth.

"I am Dezra. 22. You and I… will get along. My power…" Suddenly everybody's hair was floating around their heads.

"Hair control… Useful." I nodded shortly at the child in front of me.

"My name is Pete. I'm 27 and I get ten times my strength when I'm drunk." Said a smart-looking boy with long brown hair.

"Hmm." I nodded.

"I'm Lynn. I… have been stalked by a kettle my entire life." She reached out into the air and an old looking metal kettle flew over and landed in her palm. She proceeded to toss it away with all her strength, but it returned to a one meter radius of her.

"I have full control of it except for that. I always had to keep it in my backpack during school to prevent it from flying after me." I nodded.

"I'm Josef, 34 years old. I make portals. Teeny tiny portals." He demonstrated by sticking his finger into a glowing spot in the air, and the tip of it reappeared to poke him in the cheek.

"Very well."

"I'm Gale, as you know, and I can freeze water. And… this is Accalia. She has a voice so loud it could blow your ear drums." He gestured to the youngest looking person in the room. She was extremely thin with long, dark hair, and an expression which was a mixture of fear and disorientation. The lower half of her face was covered by a mouthguard, probably to prevent her from speaking.

"All right. I shall go back for now, but I will return shortly to test the limits of your powers. Until then… don't get each other killed." I said and walked out.