“Once you’reCauld Ane, you’ll experience the world in a whole new way.”
“How is it possiblethat a human can become Cauld Ane? Or that you can compel people to do things?”
“Present companyexcluded,” I mumbled.
“Or that some ofyou can start fires with your mind?”
I picked up thelog. “What you saw about the life of this tree was only a snapshot of theconnection you will feel to this planet and to the energy you will draw fromit.”
“That soundsscientific to you?” Lennox challenged. “Because it sounds an awful lot likemagic to me.”
“Anysufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” I said.
“I’ve readArthur C. Clarke, too,” she said, dryly. “Besides, we’re not talking aboutadvanced technology.”
“I think the billionsof humans who now have a virtually endless supply of drinking water due toCauld Ane assisted technologies in sea water desalination might disagree withyou.”
“Usingtechniques still kept under wraps, away from human eyes,” she said. “Who knowshow or what you can do?”
“Once we’rebonded, you’ll understand.”
She wrinkled hernose. “I told you not to say that.”
I threw the logonto the fire and golden embers leapt out of the hearth to dance across thewell-aged hardwood floor.
“You know that theCauld Ane can’t naturally survive very long in temperatures above sixty-eightdegrees, but do you know why?”
Lennox shook herhead.
“The reason theCauld Ane have such long lifespans, and have our so-called ‘abilities,’ isbecause of our relationship to the earth. How we communicate with it, and it tous. Most importantly, how we harness its energy.”
Her eyebrowsdrew together in a questioning glance. “Harness?”
“The maindifference between our species is our ability to communicate with our planet,right down to its molten iron core. The Cauld Ane have the ability to draw,store, and use ancient energy sources that date back to when our Earth wasstill forming. When the planet was nothing more than a swirling mass ofstardust. But it comes at a price.”
“You overheat.”
I nodded. “Inthe same way that all mammals blink, breathe, and regulate their heartbeats,our bodies are constantly at work to keep ourselves cool.”
“But how is thisall possible? And why?” she demanded. “And why do the Cauld Ane have thismagical ability to talk to the earth, but humans don’t?”
“Who can tell?Why can a bird fly in the air and a fish breathe under water?”
“Because that’show God made them,” she replied.
“Perhaps.” Ishrugged. “Intelligent design from a being greater than all of us is certainlya possibility of our origins.”
“What do youbelieve?”
“I believe thereare more mysteries in the universe than we can possibly imagine. And that everyform of life carries its own individual miracles and tragedies spanning back tothe beginning of time itself.”
“I feel like wecome from two completely different worlds,” Lennox said.
“But we don’t.We simply come from different people and places.”
“There’s nothingsimple about any of this,” she said. “I mean, why would your Fates choose twopeople to be together forever? There are still starving people in the world.Don’t they have anything better to do than play matchmaker for us?”
“The Fatesaren’t atheyso much as awhat.”
