"Think I could, when they train me. Right, Ninian?"
"I expect so." Ninian cleared the table, glanced at Jhond and re-took his seat.
Ninian felt his extra years as he looked at Jhond and saw a confused young man; the Eynan was buried somewhere inside. He sensed eyes on him and found Amired was watching him, a question in his expressive eyes. He knew he was procrastinating and turned his attention to Remelin, who was glancing from one to the other curiously. Ninian thought she was about to ask a question and stepped in quickly to stop her distracting him from his course.
"Remelin, would you describe your appearance to us?"
She looked genuinely puzzled. "Describe my appearance? Whatever for? I don't understand."
"Don't you? Or is it that you do understand and can't afford to risk describing yourself because we all see you differently?"
"Whatever are you talking about?" she asked, and Ninian had to give her credit for sounding totally confused.
"Very well, if you want to continue with the game, I see a young woman with fair hair and grey eyes. Amired?"
"Light red hair and green eyes."
"Jhond?"
"Brown hair and deep blue eyes," Jhond said quietly, not looking at Remelin.
"Would you like to explain that to us?"
"Is this just since we've been aboard ship?" Remelin asked.
Ninian pursed his lips and felt his jaw tighten. "No, since the day we met."
"Why didn't you query it before?" she asked, her voice low and tone reasonable.
"Because we didn't know until Amired made a comment last evening."
"I didn't know either. I swear," she declared. She turned to Jhond. "You must believe me. I don't understand this any more than you do." He didn't look at her, his gaze on his hands on the table surface. "It has to be the entity," she insisted. "You know how powerful it is."
"No," Jhond said, finally raising his eyes to look at her. "That cannot be. We are free from its influence out here."
"You must be wrong. It's affecting all of us somehow." She sounded desperate.
"No!" Jhond reiterated with a touch of anger. "I can feel it, still trying to escape. The only way it could have any effect was if someone is purposely acting as a conduit for it. Why, Remelin? Why?"
"Me? No, I'm not. I wouldn't!"
She sounded so definite, terribly shocked and hurt that they would think such a thing of her, but she made a mistake. A mistake Ninian saw. It was only for an instant, swiftly aborted, but it was there. A hand lifted to breast height before changing course and reaching out toward Jhond's hand on the table beseechingly.
"What are you hiding?" Ninian demanded.
"What do you mean?" she asked, disconcerted Jhond hadn't responded to her.
"Beneath your dress, next to your skin, I imagine," Ninian pressed. "It never occurred to me before, but you always wear high-necked dresses."
"Nothing, I swear. I just like the style. I don't know why you would think--"
"Because I saw, I sensed... Show us, or I'll simply spell your clothes away."
"You wouldn't dare?" She stopped at the look Ninian gave her, got hastily to her feet and made to leave the cabin. Suddenly, she froze mid-motion, one leg slightly lifted, her profile clearly visible to those watching from the table.
Ninian hadn't acted, which meant Jhond must have.
In an unutterably weary voice, Jhond said, "Stop lying. Stop fighting. Show us now."
As Jhond released her, she staggered a step, then turned to face them. Her face was pale, her expression vague. She lifted a shaking hand to her neck and slowly pulled free a long, thin chain until a slim locket was revealed. It looked delicate, and Ninian felt nothing from it...no power, no threat. How had she kept it hidden from them, from Jhond, all this time?
Jhond stared at it, apparently as puzzled as Ninian, before he abruptly flicked a finger, and all at once, Ninian felt it. The locket was redolent with power; it even glowed a little with a faint silvery light. Then Ninian remembered Jhond's description of the entity, the metal rod and its silvery mist.
Remelin had purposely kept the locket hidden, clearly knowing what it meant and how powerful it was.
Ninian glanced at Jhond, understanding how much he was hurting over her betrayal.
"Why?" Jhond asked, though he didn't really expect a sensible answer. Or any answer. He heard Remelin's choked gasp and looked at her, furious when he still saw her as the pale copy of Gallia she had always been. Why could he see that clearly now, but not before? Because he was a fool! A poor pathetic fool who had tried to achieve happiness, which had never existed, not then and not now. He'd kissed her believing he had finally found something true, and it had been as false as...
He reached out and, grabbing the chain, snapped it from her neck. He stared at it in the palm of his hand and, swamped in anger, he drew on his power. The locket shattered into hundreds of tiny shards, which exploded from his hand to shower onto the ground at his feet as little more than a cloud of dust.
The air around Remelin shimmered and the brown-haired, blue-eyed young mage was gone. In her place stood a young woman whose figure was a little fuller, with black hair and hazel eyes, who was still beautiful in her own form. Behind him, Ninian sighed, and Amired cursed. Jhond was silent as he regarded the true Remelin. If there was such a thing as a
true
Remelin.
"What do you see?" Jhond asked Ninian.
"Her age and figure are similar to the Remelin I saw, but now she has black hair and eyes of greenish brown."
Jhond glanced at Amired, who nodded his agreement.
"So this is the real you?" Jhond asked, noticing that she was sobbing quietly. He hardened his heart.
She raised her head to look at him, her eyes still swimming in tears. "You have to believe me...I had no choice. Everything I told you about how I found the cellar and...and that thing is true, but it had its hooks into me long before you ever arrived." She stepped toward him. "I wanted to warn you from the beginning, but it always knew how I felt, what I was thinking. Sometimes it was like I was a prisoner inside my own body, like I was a marionette and it was pulling all my strings."
Jhond felt sick at the thought it had manipulated that fiery kiss between them.
"Where did you get the locket?" Ninian asked, forcing Jhond to attend to the conversation.
"Days before you came, it instructed me to go into one of the cells in the nunnery, where the nuns used to sleep, and told me to look for a certain stone, a small block in one of the walls I had to work loose. Inside the space, I found a small leather pouch and the locket was inside. I didn't fully understand what the entity said, but it seems that sometime in the past it had instructed one of the nuns to work a spell around the locket. I'm not sure if the nun ever used it, but she had secured it in the wall so it could be used when the entity needed it. That's all I know, I swear."
"And there was no way you could have warned us once we reached my ship?" Amired queried.
She looked puzzled. "I was no more free of its influence here than I was back home in Garileon." She looked at Jhond and Ninian. "You escaped its influence, but as long as I was wearing that"--she waved at the minute specks of dust on the floor at her feet--"I had no choice. Like I said, it was as if the entity controlled my thoughts and actions." She paused a minute, and Jhond was at a loss as to what to do next.
Suddenly, she said, "Remember when you both first arrived in the cellar and Ninian was puzzled when he couldn't find me as he expected? I was there all the time in the corner where you eventually saw me, but it wasn't only the warden spell hiding me from view. I didn't know anything about that. The entity put a shield around me for the first few minutes while you investigated the cellar. It was searching your memories"--she flushed--"looking for..." Her voice faded as she stared at Jhond, who felt his face heat as resentment roiled through him.
"Looking for the ideal person on whom to mould your features! Finding the one person whose image would have the most effect on me and Ninian."
"Please, Jhond, please believe me when I say I didn't want it to be like this." She reached out a hand to him, but he ignored it, even taking a step back...he had no desire for her touch. Her breath hitched as she continued, "I know you'll never believe me now, but I really
do
have feelings for you. I...I tried so hard to fight its influence, to warn you of its manipulations. I wanted you to see the real me, to know who I am and not the twisted image presented to you by that evil..." She paused, and Jhond sensed she was trying to get control of her emotions, but he had little sympathy when his own emotions felt so raw.
After a few moments, she went on, "I understand your reaction was colored by how you felt about whomever it is I resemble. I wish it had been me you saw, me you took an interest in." Jhond closed his eyes and heard a slight sob.
"I'm sorry, so sorry," Remelin murmured and then he heard her move away.
He opened his eyes to see her seated across the table, her head dropped onto her crossed arms on its surface. He sighed as he regained some equilibrium. He glanced up to meet the gazes of both Ninian and Amired. They both looked stressed, and perhaps Amired even appeared a little embarrassed. Jhond looked away again. What was he supposed to do? He accepted that Remelin had no choice. She was as trapped by the entity as it now was by Jhond's shield, but he still found it difficult to forgive her.
Yet was that fair? The physical resemblance she wore to Gallia may have been false, but the young woman he interacted with, whose company he enjoyed, who made him laugh, for whom he had been concerned...that was all Remelin. It was Remelin he had kissed, but could he be sure Remelin had truly kissed him of her own free will? He looked in her direction and was unable to see her face, still buried in her arms, but he could sense her distress all too clearly.
"Go wash your face, Remelin," Jhond said softly. "I know washing away the tears won't remove the pain, but it's a starting point. A little time alone might help us all come to terms with this."
She looked up at him then, her face blotchy, her expression distraught, but she nodded and got slowly to her feet.
"Perhaps we can meet up for dinner later?" Ninian added gently.
"Yes, yes, good idea," Jhond said.
"Come," Amired said, taking Remelin's arm and leading her out of the cabin.
* * * *
Ninian knew how upset Jhond was by what they'd just discovered. He and Amired had been fooled, too, but for them it only concerned a lost memory. For Jhond, it had become about a present-day emotion.
Jhond sat down heavily, and Ninian felt it was best to bring him back to the task at hand. "What now?" he asked.
Jhond looked confused when he met Ninian's gaze.
"Are we going to sail in circles forever?" Ninian asked, a faint smile on his face.
Jhond squared his shoulders, though his expression suggested he was still thinking over the discovery about Remelin. "No. I need to destroy the entity once and for all, and for that, we need to return to Garileon."
"Do you know how to get rid of it now?"
"Yes. The history I gathered from the cracked crystal gave me all the answers. I need to take the crystal back to where it was created and then I can annihilate them both at the same time. That's the secret; you can't eradicate that which is trapped in the cellar without also destroying the rod trapped within the crystal."
"But I thought you said the rod couldn't be destroyed, which is why is ended up inside a crystal."
"True, the doyen had been right that the mage couldn't destroy the rod, but he'd only told half of the truth, which is why he'd been so distressed when the mage had encased it in new crystal. A mage powerful enough and knowledgeable enough can destroy the rod if the crystal containing it was of his own creation." Jhond glanced at him, and Ninian saw the determination in his expression. "My interaction with the past didn't only give me the history of the cracked crystal, it also taught me the spells for the creation and destruction of crystals, long thought lost."
Ninian shook his head. "The crystals certainly can teach us more than we'd ever realized. Something else that has been lost since the Withdrawal."
"Yes. Perhaps that means there's still more to discover in the libraries."
"Maybe, but that's for another time. We need to sort out this problem now. You said a mage powerful enough and knowledgeable enough. That would be you. So we have to go to that damned cellar again." Ninian frowned. "Will the fact the entity is free within the cellar be a problem?"
"Possibly. It's likely it will want to merge with the power from the rod."
"You believe it can do that?"
"I believe it will want to, though I'm not sure if it will be able to, but I think it wise to assume it's possible and be prepared for the worse. So, I'm going to take some precautions. I learned from the crystal that the spells to create the rod were devised within Garileon Castle. I'm going to go there and cast a dispersion spell to scatter any remaining power from the original incantation."
"But the castle is little more than a ruin now."
"I know, which means I'll have to cast the spell over all that remains."
Ninian's eyes widened. That would take a powerful spell.
After a minute or two, Ninian asked, "And what of Remi? Is it safe to take her back home?"
"She will be safe in Amired's care while we go to Garileon Castle. I want you to combine your talent with mine while I cast the dispersion spell. However, I'll feel better about leaving her in your care while I go alone to the nunnery to deal with the entity. Once Remi is free of its influence, we can do what we always intended--take her back to Timendra and teach her how to properly use her talent."
Ninian noted the distinctive lack of emotion in Jhond's voice as he spoke of Remelin, but Ninian also noted the expression in Jhond's eyes. Ninian debated whether to ask the next question, but decided they both needed to face the question head on. "And after she's trained, what will become of her? She has no family, no connections at all in Timendra. And what about your feelings for her?"