“He doesn’t even speak their language yet. You should give it some time. We’ve made it this far. What do another few months matter?” Entas said.
“She is alone, Entas,” I said softly and sighed. The little man put his hand on my shoulder.
“Not for long.”
“I don’t need your comfort. I need results.”
“Well then. Continue screaming at them. That is producing plenty of your results.” He sighed and removed his hand from my shoulder.
I had stopped counting the years a dozen lifetimes ago. While I had grown more accustomed to the invisible hand I played in the lives of Malek and Nyarathe’s kin, I still did not know what to make of the strange man who was my mentor in this afterlife. He was committed to helping me, but he had not been able to offer much assistance with my manipulations of my sister’s or the O’Baarni’s blood lines since he did not share the connection with them that I did. He could only advise and encourage me.
Entas and I had spent thousands of years together observing the living Elvens and humans, yet I still knew very little about the man and had long since grown bored attempting to decipher the truth in the riddles he spoke, or to elucidate his own personal history from the constant barrage of jokes and jests that tumbled from his lips. I trusted him, still. He had been with me too long to be motivated by anything but a sincere desire to help, whatever his reasons.
Even if he fucking annoyed me.
Kaiyer and the girl named Nadea were out of my sight again, so I shifted my perspective to stand next to them once more. It was a technique Entas had taught me after a few days, and I used it to instantly appear wherever I wished to be. It was useful for orchestrating my plans. I did not even need to know what my destination looked like, I could simply decide I wanted to observe someone, or be in a particular place, and my vision shifted and took me there instantly.
“It is getting late. We need to go back,” Nadea said to Kaiyer.
“We need to check the guard post.” He pointed off to his side where I knew the humans of the nearby tribe had an assignment of warriors.
“Okay. One more hour and then we should go back. Yes?” Kaiyer nodded at the woman’s words. His eyes were bright green and seemed to sparkle against the sunlight. My heart filled with love for the man and then quickly grew to anger when I saw him appraising the girl’s lean body.
“Looks like he is hungry for more than food.” Entas laughed and I shot another glare at him. My anguish just made him laugh louder. “He’s been sleeping a long time, Iolarathe. He has forgotten me and he has forgotten you. Can’t he look at another woman?”
“No. He needs to find our daughter.” I knew my jealousy was unreasonable, but I could not rein in my rage. I wanted to live. I wanted to feel his lips and body on mine again. This girl was not worthy of him and it infuriated me to imagine them together, that he would be with her and forget me.
I should have felt nothing but gratitude toward the young woman. Kaiyer was awake now. That had seemed almost impossible, but we had exhausted our other options. We had tried and failed several times to send various descendants to this world, returning after each attempt to the floating islands to find another limb of either family tree that we could manipulate. I began to juggle dozens of men and women at once. Soon I had laid out hundreds of different plans, hoping and watching to see if any would work.
Finally, Gilluard was born.
Perhaps there was something wrong with him that allowed me to speak to him directly. Perhaps it was a gift from the Dead Gods. Or a curse. Whatever the reasons, Malek’s descendant listened to me both in his dreams and while awake. He was handsome, strong, and born into a family that ranked highly within his clan’s political structure. He was the perfect tool and as soon as I discovered him I began to plot ways to get him to this world to bring back Kaiyer.
My plans shifted when he met Telaxthe.
I sensed their initial attraction to each other immediately. Under normal circumstances, neither of them would have ever imagined forming a relationship with each other. But my voice whispered in their ears, coaxing and persuading them, making them think my desires were their own. Entas and I were intrigued with the possibility of the two of them creating a child. We knew it was possible, as Kaiyer and I had created Vaiarathe, but we had never heard of another like her in the thousands of years we had spent observing their world.
Entas believed a crossbreed could utilize the O’Baarni’s powerful magic and use the Radicles without an Ovule. The orbs were difficult to obtain and I did not know how many, if any, existed on the world where my daughter waited.
My plan worked perfectly. Almost too perfectly. Their offspring was discovered by one of the nobles of this world and adopted as his own. His home was close to the Radicle Vaiarathe would come through, and all I needed to do was instruct the girl to awaken Kaiyer, tell him my daughter’s name, and then my love could finally save our daughter.
Except the bitch was too fucking strong.
Or stupid.
Probably the latter.
I pleaded with her. I asked her hundreds of times to find Kaiyer, or to find Vaiarathe, so that the girl could wake her father. Nadea did not listen. She woke from her dreams and recalled nothing of what I had said. The situation was beyond frustrating. I had laid all my hopes upon this girl and for many years it seemed as if she would fail, though all of the other pieces were finally in place. Entas could do little to help.
Finally, I discovered a method that made my words stick in her brain when she awoke. Nadea was not responsive to my gentle pleas for help, but she was terrified of me when I screamed at her. The fear seemed to bind most of my messages, and when the girl woke, crying from her nightmare of me, she would quickly jot down what she remembered in her journal. She got most of it wrong, but for every step backward, I made two steps toward educating the girl and she slowly became obsessed with discovering Kaiyer.
I was the terrible Singleborn again and I hated it.
“I just worry about Jessmei making that climb.” Nadea’s voice interrupted my thoughts. They were looking from the edge of the cliff at the human soldiers at the base of the canyon. Kaiyer could have destroyed them with a wave of his hand and a shred of his magic, but he did not remember how to use his power, nor the extent of it.
“It will be okay,” he assured her.
“Good idea. Let’s go back.” Nadea smiled at him and my felt my stomach flip with anger.
“I’m sure he’ll remember soon. He has not forgotten how to fight and made quick work of those humans that captured his new friends. When it matters, he will use his power,” Entas reassured me again and I nodded to him. I knew the old man was trying to make me feel better, perhaps he was even experiencing the same frustration I was, but at the moment, I did not want any words of encouragement.
I just wanted my daughter to meet her father.
Kaiyer and Nadea walked back to the area where they ascended the cliff to reach this high jungle. Entas and I followed but did not speak to each other. The sun was close to setting, but I knew that Kaiyer would be able to see in the darkness.
“We should climb up tonight,” he said to Nadea. She nodded but instead of speaking, the girl set about anchoring their climbing rope to the rocky ledge of the cliff and tying the loose end of the length to a tree nearby.
“Tell him!” I stood in front of her when she tied the rope around the tree, but of course she didn’t hear me.
“You should yell louder.” Entas chuckled. “I think your Dead Gods almost heard you that time.”
“Fuck you, Entas.”
“Don’t get mad at me.” The weird monkey man shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve done nothing but help you. Don’t forget that I also want your daughter saved from the Radicle.”
“He’s attracted to her,” I admitted. “It angers me. I apologize.”
“She is attracted to him as well. What can you do? They will probably fuck each other as soon as they get back to the pretty blonde girl’s castle.”
“Now you are just trying to enrage me!” I growled.
“Try.” Nadea handed Kaiyer the rope and he gave it a few tugs to ensure that the tree would hold his weight. Then he slid off of the edge of the cliff and began his descent. The woman followed a few seconds after him.
“What are you willing to sacrifice for your daughter? Maybe if they are lovers, it will be easier for her to remember your instructions.”
“That sounds unlikely. Stop talking about it,” I seethed.
“You are not alive anymore. If you want Vaiarathe to survive the Radicle, you’ll have to stay here and observe his new life. He will love again.”
“No. He loves me. He doesn’t care about that girl and neither do I.” I wanted to smack him, but I knew it was pointless. The man was slippery, and though he was more than annoying, I had come to rely on his help.
“Oh. You don’t care about Nadea? After you spent thousands of years creating her? I find that hard to believe.” He raised a gray bushy eyebrow and chuckled.
“No. I do not care about her. I’ve spent too much time on the bitch.” I was about to say more but Entas did a strange bird-like hop toward the rope and pulled a sword out of the air as if he had an invisible sheath hanging above him.
Then he brought the weapon down on the rope.
It cut cleanly, as if the blade was real and Entas’s arm had actually delivered the blow.
“No!” I dove toward the rope as it slithered over the edge. I felt the smooth hemp slide through my palm before I could close my fingers. My entire body began to ache at the loss and I screamed again.
All was lost.
I crawled to the side of the cliff and imagined the horrific scene that awaited me. Kaiyer might survive, but the girl would be dashed against the rocks below like a drop of splattered red paint. Without her, Kaiyer would not know what to do, he did not even know who he was, he needed her to guide him to our daughter.
Once I peered over the edge I sighed in relief. My love had grabbed onto the side of the cliff and also caught the girl. I watched him swing her onto the cliff face and then he looked up to see what had caused the line to separate from the tree.
“Why?” I shouted my question to Entas.
“Did you feel the rope?” He smiled.
“Yes.” I looked down at my hand and saw a bit of red where the cord briefly slid against my skin. “How did I touch it? How did you get that sword?”
“I think that you care about that girl more than you will admit. She is very similar to your daughter, don’t you think?”
“No. She is nothing like my daughter. Explain to me what just happened.”
“It is odd that you feel that way. Both Nadea and Vaiarathe have mixed lineage. They both enjoy traveling, climbing, and exploring. They both have inquisitive minds and are much smarter than the average human or Elven.”
“Are you going to tell me about the sword and the rope? I thought we were past these games?” I felt my anger subsiding. If I really could touch items in the physical world, I might have a better chance of communicating with Kaiyer. Then I would not need Nadea.
“You can create or touch anything that you want.”
“What?” I rose to my feet and felt like murdering the man. “Why did you keep this from me? That would have made my quest much easier.”
“That is doubtful. And I did tell you. You just don’t remember.”
“I’ve recalled all of our conversations,” I spat at the little bald man.
“Of course you have.” He nodded and winked at me. “It is a difficult power to harness. You must really want the object to appear or move. It won’t just happen. It is difficult to master and it will leave you feeling weak. It is not something you can do often.”
“You don’t look tired.”
“I know who I am. You are still confused.”
“More riddles. I know who I am, Entas.”
“Your apprentice is leaving. Do you wish to follow her?” He pointed at the edge of the cliff and smirked.
“Show me how you made that sword. Then show me how you cut the rope.” I would not let him distract me.
“You won’t forget this time?” He bobbed his head in the usual fashion.
“No. You have not shown me before.” I was calm now and ready to learn. I would forgive him again because this existence was more than lonely. He was all I had and I needed him, as much as he infuriated me.
“See that stone?” He gestured to the palm-sized rock that lay next to my foot. I nodded.
“Pick it up from the ground.”
“It will spin around my hand. See?” I knelt down and ran my hand through the stone. It swirled around my palm and fingers like it was made of oil.
“I want you to think about picking up the stone and throwing it at me.” His face dropped the smirk and I followed his instructions. For a moment it seemed as if the rock became solid in my hand, but then it slipped from my grasp like steam.
“You actually need to throw it at me. First think it, then do it, you only half considered throwing it at me.” He smiled again. “It is nice to know that, despite your words, you don’t actually want to hurt me.”
I smirked and reached for it again. The rock seemed to solidify in my hand and I shot to my feet with a twist of my hips. My arm whipped out and the stone hurled through the air on an arrow’s path to the old man’s chest. His hand blurred at the last second and he caught the rock with a loud slapping sound.