The sun sat just above the treetops when Alex and Nina stepped outside and headed to the Guild House. Clark and Daphne were already there, working hard at deciphering the secrets of the mysterious cauldron. The large, black pot sat on the woodstove with a small fire burning in the iron chamber beneath it.
“Any luck?” Alex asked.
“The gorping thing is driving me crazy,” Daphne said, throwing down a wooden spoon in frustration. “Every potion I try to make comes out completely wrong.”
“Maybe it’s the onions,” Nina suggested with a giggle. Daphne glared at her and Nina fell silent.
“Well, the magic of the cauldron is doing something, but it’s doing something different every time,” Clark said.
“Two exact potions made exactly the same way, and they came out different,” Daphne said.
“Ah, and they smelled bad,” Clark said.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Alex said, patting them both on the shoulder, which required quite a stretch between their respective heights. “But we have something else we need to do this morning.”
“What in the name of Hyperion’s hernia has happened now?” Daphne asked.
“Somebody tried to kill Alex again last night on the way home,” Nina said.
“Hmm, maybe we shouldn’t let you out of our sight,” Clark said.
“My parents had the same thought,” Alex said. He explained what had happened and how his parents had decided to react to it. Then he explained why he needed them all to go with him to see Batami in the White Forest. Then, when Ben, Rafael and Victoria arrived, he explained it all again.
“It seems we have a very busy day ahead of us,” Victoria said. “A meeting for you with Batami. Searching the carnival for the Shadow Wraith’s followers and the anti-astral artifact. Then foiling the plans of the Mad Mages. I should have packed a lunch.”
“Hmm, you’re right,” Clark said, absent-mindedly rubbing his stomach. “We should take something with us.”
“Food,” Ben said. “It’s always food with you two.”
They grabbed some snacks from the Guild House food locker, an old, wooden cabinet stuffed with dried fruit, nuts, candy bars, potato chips, and sodas. Afterward, Alex dug out his old bicycle from the garage and used the hand pump to fill the deflated tires. Half an hour later, everyone except Victoria laid their bikes in the grass outside Batami’s hut. She sat on a small wooden bench of unpainted, but bone-white wood, a pitcher of iced lemonade and a glass seated beside her. Sufina, the giant white wolf, lay in the grass at her side.
As they walked up to the hut, Alex noticed Victoria’s tail twitching nervously.
“I’m the one who should be nervous,” Alex said. “I missed our lesson.”
“I know it’s irrational,” Victoria said, “as she as proven herself to be friendly, but every time I’m near Sufina, I have an overwhelming desire to run. As though she might change her mind and decide to have me for dinner.”
“That doesn’t sound irrational to me,” Rafael said, surreptitiously eying Sufina. “You won’t see me changing into a rabbit while we’re here.”
“Thank you, Rafael,” Victoria said. “That was ever-so-comforting.”
“She seems nice enough to me,” Alex said, unconsciously smiling at Sufina as he approached the hut.
“I missed you last night,” Batami said as Alex and the others stepped into the shade of the white-leafed trees beside the hut.
“I feel asleep,” Alex said, his eyes darting away in sheepish guilt. “Deeply asleep.”
“You must have had a taxing day,” Batami said.
“And night,” Alex said.
“I see you brought company today,” Batami said, looking past Alex to the rest of the Guild.
“We’re his bodyguards,” Nina said, proudly squaring her shoulders.
“In case someone tries to kill him a third time,” Rafael added, frowning at Alex.
“A third time?” Batami said, her eyebrows rising in question. “It seems you’ve been keeping busy.”
“Keeping all of us busy,” Daphne said.
“Why don’t you tell me about it on a walk through the forest?” Batami said as she stood up. “Your friends can stay here and enjoy the lemonade.” She gestured to a long, white wooden table under a tree not far away. The table had two white benches on either side. “There are more glasses in the house. I’m sure Daphne can find them. Don’t wander about,” she added, catching Daphne’s eye. “The house is easy to get lost in.” The exterior of Batami’s hut magically led to the interior of a house much larger, which Alex suspected was hidden somewhere deep within the White Forest.
“Sufina will make sure you are all safe while I am gone,” Batami concluded. Sufina gave a long low growl that seemed to imply some kind of dissatisfaction, but she remained lying in the shade.
Alex waved to his friends and Batami guided him to a slender path behind the hut. The path was worn down, its rich, dark earth a stark contrast to the bleached ivory colors of the forest around them. The path led straight into the forest for as far as Alex could see.
“What is this about another attempt on your life?” Batami asked as they walked through the chalk-colored trees.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Alex said, trying to sound nonchalant. He told her about being trapped on the runaway bicycle and how he had managed to survive. Then he informed her about how he had spent the day searching for the followers of the Shadow Wraith and the artifact preventing astral travel within the carnival. And, he told her about their lack of success.
“I am not surprised you have been unable to find neither the artifact nor its owner,” Batami said. “Whoever it is, they have had a long time to practice their deception. An artifact of that nature would be very difficult for anyone to find. If your father and mother cannot sense it, it is no wonder your large friend, Clark, could not sniff it out.”
“Maybe there is a way to break through the astral barrier,” Alex said, looking up at Batami.
“I have been attempting just that,” Batami said, pursing her lips, “with unfortunately frustrating results.”
“What happened?” Alex asked.
“Nothing,” Batami said, frowning. “Absolutely nothing. No matter what I attempted, the barrier remains intact. It was irritating beyond measure.”
“I’ve been thinking…” Alex said, looking up at the bone-white trees.
“Dangerous words,” Batami said, glancing down at Alex.
“I was reading something in the book,” Alex said. He didn’t need to say which book.
“Now I see why you came,” Batami said, leaning over to smell the flowers of a white-leafed jasmine bush.
“I was reading a section that seems to suggest it’s possible to see into someone’s soul-essence,” Alex said. “To see into the nature of it.”
“And you think if you can learn to do such a thing, you will be able to ferret out the followers of the Shadow Wraith,” Batami said.
“If I look the right way, I can see a person’s soul-essence,” Alex said. “What you’ve taught me has helped me get better at it. But the book was talking about something that sounds like reading someone’s soul. And I figure the soul-essence of someone trying to free the Shadow Wraith will be different in some way.”
“I’m sure it will,” Batami said, turning from the flowers to stare at Alex. “But what you speak of, Soul Sight, is not a thing to be done lightly, if at all. Seeing into someone’s soul-essence is not like reading a book. When you read the words of a book, you take them with you, in your mind, but they are yours to command. When you look deeply into the soul-essence of another, you are not reading, not seeing with your mind. Your own soul-essence must touch theirs. When you do, something of theirs stays with you. Clings to you. Haunts you.”
“But I could find out who the Shadow Wraith’s followers are,” Alex said, his tone insistent.
“At what cost?” Batami asked. “What will you see? And what will you do once you have seen?”
“I can handle it,” Alex said, standing a little straighter.
“Assuming you could,” Batami said, “there are other dangers to consider.”
“What dangers?” Alex asked.
“That the sight will not leave you once you have called it forth,” Batami said.
“I don’t understand,” Alex said.
“Seeing into a person’s soul-essence is a special kind of inner sight,” Batami said. “Like when your eyes adjust to a darkened room. Now imagine if your eyes stayed like that when you went back out into the light. That is what can happen with Soul Sight. It can remain forever once called upon.”
“But I would only do it once,” Alex said.
“Once is enough,” Batami said. “I have seen it happen.”
Alex contemplated this information in silence. The book had not hinted at this. It was a serious risk. To be forever forced to see the world through his astral eyes and always to know the depths of others soul-essences, to carry parts of them with him always. It would be enough to drive someone mad.
“I have to take the risk,” Alex said, having made up his mind. If the worst happened, it would only be worse for him. If the Shadow Wraith was released from its prison, that would be worse for everyone. “I don’t see any other way.”
“Neither do I,” Batami said, weariness filling her voice. “It was not something I could bring myself to suggest. I would risk it myself if I could enter the carnival grounds, but I cannot leave the White Forest in physical form and I cannot break the barrier around the carnival in my astral body. For the first time in many, many years, I feel trapped.”
“Does that mean you will help me?” Alex asked. “Teach me how?”
Batami stopped and stood motionless in the middle of the path. “I will show you what I know, but I can only show you so much. It is not a thing I have ever attempted.”
“Thank you,” Alex said. He looked up into Batami’s cloud-gray eyes and saw a deep sadness there. A sadness for him, he knew. There was a deeper sorrow there, as well, but there was no time to question her about it. “I’m sorry, for asking you to do this.”
“I expected you would,” Batami said with a sigh. “You’re too quick to pick things up from that book. I should have prepared myself. But, we are rarely ever prepared for the things we should be, even when we know what they are. Now, stand before me. Open your mind and heart and see with your astral eyes.”
Alex did as instructed, breathing deeply, calming his mind, quieting his thoughts, until his vision shifted to see through his astral eyes — the part of his mind that saw without sight. He could have closed his eyes then and seen the same vision, but he kept them open. Batami appeared as all living things did, with a pale blue-white glow. The forest shimmered behind her.
“Now look at my soul-essence,” Batami said.
Alex looked at the small sphere of blazing clear-white light resting at the center of Batami’s chest where her heart would be. Alex had done this many times before — looked at the world with astral eyes. Seen the soul-essences of others. Nevertheless, he was always amazed at how bright and clear the light of Batami’s soul-essence was.
“Now, focus on your own soul-essence,” Batami said. “Feel it blazing in its pure light. Feel through it. Feel through it toward my soul-essence. Feel how they are drawn together. How they wish to be together. How they are not really separate things.”
Alex felt his soul-essence in a new way as Batami’s words settled into his mind. Its pure, clear light. Its infinite stillness and motion all at once. Its connection to the soul-essence within Batami. Even its connection to the trees, the forest, and the sky above. It was as if the same pure light shown out of two windows. Out of a thousand windows.
He felt the light of his soul-essence reaching out to the light shining forth from Batami and discovered the two lights touching, mingling, separate, but inseparable. In that moment of connection, Alex perceived something else, as well. A force that he had no words for, a force he knew was Batami’s inner-most spirit, the part of her that determined the nature of her soul-essence. It was like seeing a sunrise for the first time. Or the last time. A universe of love in a teardrop. A symphony of unspeakable beauty compacted into a single note. An ocean of wonder in wave after wave after…
“Don’t look too long.”
The words came from somewhere. Someone. Himself? The trees? The sky?
“To look too long is like looking at the sun.”
Was that why there were tears in his eyes?
Alex blinked and breathed deep, as though he had been holding his breath. Maybe he had. His eyes fluttered and his vision returned to normal. He stepped back and leaned against a birch tree.
“That was…”
“More than you expected,” Batami said with a compassionate smile.
“Yes,” Alex said, still blinking and breathing deeply. “It was so beautiful.”
“It will not be the same when you find who are looking for,” Batami said, lending Alex a hand and guiding him forward along the path.
“That will stay with me?” Alex asked, feeling the answer in his heart.
“Hopefully what you carry from me will be a help rather than a hindrance,” Batami said. “A counter-balance to what you will find when you discover the ones you seek.”
“I don’t know how often I can do that,” Alex said, feeling a sharp pang of hunger and realizing what the experience had required of him.
“You must only do this for someone you suspect. It is too dangerous to do repeatedly.”
“I understand,” Alex said. He did understand. To see so deeply into another person was no light matter and he could not imagine what it would be like to be unable to see in any other way.
“I’ll send you on your way with some sandwiches,” Batami said, placing her hand on Alex’s shoulder.
They walked in silence until the path emerged from the forest. Alex was surprised to see his friends gathered around the table, playing a game of Elements. He had been certain they had kept walking straight on the path, away from Batami’s hut.
“How?” Alex began to ask.
“The forest and I are deep friends,” Batami said. “Our wills are one.”
“Fire,” Ben said as Alex and Batami crossed the small glade of white grass to the where the others sat. “Fire beats wood.”