Dizzy and I nodded to each other in passing as I went into the house to change. After I passed them, I overheard:
“Is that a Phorasti?” came the man’s voice.
“Yes,” Dizzy replied. “My brother.”
“Your brother is a?—”
The door shut firmly behind me and I sighed. That was not an unusual reaction, and one reason I didn’t like wearing my official Phorasti robes: too much attention and curiosity.
Then I sighed for a completely different reason: Dizzy had called me her brother.
And I was…
…sort of.
Her father had adopted me after the Dath-Riven War.
The trouble was, I didn’t see her as a sister. She was the love of my life, but despite all my powers, I’d never had the courage to tell her. I didn’t want to ruin the pleasant relationship we had. We lived together, even if it was in separate rooms. I saw her every day. We laughed and joked together. It was a good life.
But if I told her how I felt, and that wasn’t what she wanted, everything would become awkward. I’d probably have to move out, which was the last thing I wanted.
I didn’t know what to do.
For all that everyone gawked at my Phorasti powers, and the status that came with them, I was a coward when it came to the woman I loved.
Shoulders slumped, I went to my room and took off my Phorasti robes. As much as I hated them, they opened a lot of doors for me. Being the only Phorasti of any significant rank within the city of Pearlia, I was called upona lot.
My trip this morning had not been planned. A runner had come from the university. One of the professors had fallen from a ladder in the library and needed healing. It had taken me some time to perform the delicate mending of bone and restitching of sinew and muscle. I was utterly exhausted, but also two gold royals richer.
Not that money mattered to me. I already had a small fortune and nothing to spend it on. Dizzy wouldn’t let me help her with the finances for the cottage and grounds and I had few other needs so… I repaid her in small ways, using my powers to encourage the garden in the back, and giving gifts on her birthday and Festival Days — she wouldn’t take gifts any other time, too much pride — but that was it.
I sat heavily on my bed in the darkness of my room. Though for me, it wasn’t dark at all. Everything around me radiated an aura. This was the gift of the Phorasti, or more specificallya Kromasti, though few outside the White Tower would make that distinction. Every living thing had an aura and most of the furniture was made from once living materials and still held a trace of their aura.
The wood in the wardrobe, the desk, and the bed frame gave off a green hue. Even the cloth mattress and the feathers which stuffed it gave off faint hues of green and gold. The chunks of ash in the hearth, dark to any other, were simmering orange to my Phorasti senses.
I thought about laying down, but hearing the scuffing and sparring out in the yard next to my room did not seem conducive to rest, so I dressed in some rough clothes and went to encourage the garden.
I left the house and crossed the yard quickly, getting out of Dizzy’s way, but paused once I was in the garden.
Even without looking I could feel Dizzy’s aura. Mostly she was red, the color of passion and strength, it billowed off her like no one else, a heady cloud. I’d gotten used to it, but it had overwhelmed me often as a boy when I’d first been coming into my powers. Her aura also possessed heavy strokes of yellow for her courage and vitality. Lesser, but still noticeable, were traces of violet and purple for her wisdom and presence, and blue for her integrity and wit. It wasn’t uncommon for people to give off many colors, but the sheer force of Dizzy’s aura made me, well… dizzy. Everyone thought my nickname for her came from her dizzying combat ability and how fast she moved, and… it was. But for me it had a whole other meaning.
The aura of the noble with her was quite colorful and complex, but nowhere near as strong as Dizzy’s. He possessed a base of strong blue, violet, and purple with undertones of gold, a hint of orange, and thin streamers of yellow and green. A very eclectic man indeed.
I sighed and knelt next to a patch of cabbage, feeling the greenness of its energy. I expanded my aura to connect with this small plant. If Dizzy’s aura was strong enough to dazzle me, the aura of a full Phorasti like me would be overwhelming even to someone who wasn’t sensitive to such things. It was one of the reasons why the first lesson any Phorasti was taught was how to restrain their aura until and unless needed. Even normal people, despite not being able to see our colors, would still feel and be affected by a strong aura, becoming dazed and addled. So, I had to keep my aura contained, most of the time.
I touched the cabbage’s aura and felt for any disease or impurities, even if only traces, and weeded them out before moving on to the next. Shorine’s garden had never been so lush and bountiful as it was since I’d returned to Pearlia last year. I loved the simplicity of working with these plants. They were nowhere near as complex as people.
People could be harsh and violent and… with the sparring not that far away behind me, my mind pulled me back to memories of the war…
I could see it vividly, my senses alive with the stench and sounds of that final —horrible— battle for Vestrea City. The Pearlian forces defended, under siege. The Eromorn army swarmed like ants — in the thousands — around the walls. The city had been under siege for months, our forces dwindling, out of food, and desperate.
I’d been called to help lift the siege.
My jaw tightened, as it had that day… when I’d done what had been commanded of me. I’d never used my powers to harm anyone before that day, nor since. I’d killed enough men that day for a dozen lifetimes. It had been far too easy, pulling their colors to me, sapping their life energies. Between one heartbeat and the next, more than three thousand men had drawn their last breath and fallen still.
I returned to myself as the memory faded, eyes clenched shut, tears leaking from them as I shuddered violently. I hoped Dizzy was distracted with her instruction and didn’t see me shaking. She didn’t know what I’d done.
What I’d done… to save her.
