Page 6 of The Jester

Brushing the skirt of her dress, she sits down on the overturned tree stump near the water’s edge and braces her hands on her knees. “I’ve been trying to learn to control my magic,” she says. “So I can choose when to read people and when not to.”

I quirk an eyebrow at her. She has never spoken of her empathy as magic before. In fact, she has rarely spoken of it at all.

“The elders don’t trust me,” she says, a sigh making her shoulders droop. “Maura, especially, thinks empaths are bad news. I heard her saying as much to my father.”

My jaw twitches. It’s true, the elders are suspicious of Alana. They feel uncomfortable around her. As do many others.

“But if I can learn to control it – shut it off properly – then perhaps they’ll feel more able to be around me.”

There is a note of childlike desperation in Alana’s voice that makes my gut twist with sadness. “Have you had any luck?”

She shakes her head. “I tried searching the books in my mother’s library, but there isn’t a single one that talks about how an empath can learn to channel their power or harness it. In fact, we’re not really mentioned at all.”

I tilt my head from side to side. “That kind of makes sense. You’re the first empath in three hundred years to be born in the Leafborne community.”

At this, Alana sighs and snaps, “I know. But surely, someone must know something that can help me?”

I sit down next to her and stretch out my feet, allowing the water to lap my toes. She’s right, someone should help her. “Okay, look, I don’t know anything about empaths. But I attended the academy for four years. I did my training. Maybe I can help.”

Alana frowns at me for a moment, and then her frown turns into a smile. “You’d do that?”

I want to whisper, I’d do anything for you. But I don’t. “Of course.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes. Sometimes, her freckles are so vibrant I’m convinced they’ll smudge, like makeup, if she rubs them too hard.

“Maybe we just start with what they told us on our first day?” I think back to my first day at the academy. I remember missing Alana so deeply I thought I might quit, and run home, and be satisfied with never getting acquainted with my water affinity.

But I didn’t.

“All right,” she says, smiling and turning towards me as if I’m about to teach her the greatest lesson of all time.

“They told us magic comes from within. It’s a part of who we are, intertwined with our very essence. It’s powered by our emotions. So, we take the emotion we’re feeling, latch onto it, and channel it –”

“I’m aware,” she says. “You don’t need to fae-splain it to me, Kayan.”

I offer her an apologetic smile and swipe my fingers through my hair. “Sorry.”

Alana shakes her head, laughing a little, although it’s not a happy laugh. Even I know that, and I have no empathic abilities whatsoever.

She bites her lower lip and looks down at her fingers, which are fiddling with the fabric of her deep-burgundy-coloured skirt.

“What if it’s different for me? What if my magic comes from everyone else’s essence? Because honestly, Kayan, I don’t feel it. When you all talk about your magic, you talk about the way it feels deep inside. As if it’s a tangible, physical sensation. For me... it’s just always there. Washing over me like waves. Sometimes calm and tranquil, sometimes tsunamis. But always there.”

A little speechless, I stare out at the water and think about whether I can relate to what Alana’s saying. As much as I try, I can’t. My magic is part of me but separate from me. It’s as if I’m a conduit for it. I feel it surging up inside me when I call to it, and at other times it lies dormant. Waiting to be used.

“Show me how you do it.” Alana stands and moves towards the water.

“You’ve seen me do my party tricks a hundred times before,” I tell her, even though part of me is dying to show off a little.

“Yes, but I’m not usually studying you,” she says playfully. “This time, I’ll watch carefully.”

The twinkle in her eyes when she speaks makes my throat constrict, and knowing that she probably feels exactly how much I want her right now makes the sensation even harder to control. “Well,” I shrug, “I do have one trick I haven’t shown you. It took a long time to master. I haven’t even shown the elders yet.”

Alana’s smile brightens. “I love a secret,” she says.

Without speaking, I flex my wings and bend down to hitch up my pants so they’re folded just below my knees. I stride into the water, allowing it to lap at my skin, welcoming me into its depths.

Alana remains in the shallows, the bottom of her dress damp from caressing the tops of the pebbles and the water that nestles between them.

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