Page 120 of Gift from the Tree

“Your control is coming much easier this time around,” Tillman says casually, playing it off as if he isn’t that impressed.

“It feels easier, and I’m not as afraid as I was when I learned that I could manipulate air. It feels more natural when I don’t try to fight it,” she explains with a flick of her hand, sending the dirt back into the ground, filling the hole back, and the air into the wind. Fucking natural.

“What would you like to do now, little wanderer?” I ask as she sits on the ground with her legs out, face tilting toward the sun. She’s so gorgeous. Her shoulders are tense for a fraction, so I know she’s still carrying some of the hurt and strain of the past few days. It’d take some work to get back to what it was, but we’ll get there. I’ll make sure of it.

“Absolutely nothing. Sit here and soak up the sun. I need to get my communicator and journal from my room, but I don’t want to move from this spot, so I’ll just enjoy this for a minute, then move.”

I grin at her. I’m the king of doing absolutely nothing when the guys let me get away with it, but Tillman and Corentin? No, they don’t know how to relax, always needing to do something. Caspian can sit in the same spot and read book after book, which is his definition of working and relaxing.

Shadows gather in a shaded spot about two feet away from Willow, grabbing her attention, so she leans over a little and runs her hands through them. I doubt she knows Caspian can feel that just as keenly as if she were actually touching him. I probably should tell her that, but I feel like that’s something she’d prefer for Caspian to admit himself, not me. After a few seconds, they scatter, revealing her journal and communicator.

“I got to say, moving through walls is pretty discombobulating, but that’s a nifty little trick.” She graces Caspian with a huge smile on her face as she reaches for her things. He doesn’t take his eyes off the book he’s reading to even acknowledge that she’s complimenting him. Although he seems to be off the whole “she’s a spy” theory, it’s going to take a little work for him to just be open and himself with her, even though he’s been different since last night.

First, him touching her last night was a huge fucking shock to my system. He doesn’t touch anyone like that. I have to fight tooth and nail just for a damn hug. Then his actions this morning were completely out of character because he’d never do something like that with just anyone. As a matter of fact, he’s only ever moved us with his shadows and typically only when we’re out on missions, or the two of us are doing shit we shouldn’t be.

“How have you been processing everything in there so far?” Corentin asks her, jumping all over the opportunity to get a little glimpse of what Gaster’s shared with her.

“Well, there’s so much in here. At first, I tried to just read it like a book, flip through the pages like chapters, but it isn’t in any chronological order, so I’d read something and get confused,” she admits, opening her journal.

“Is there no way to make it more chronological? I mean, I’m sure there is a fuck ton of information, so it may be hard to get it all right, but at least somewhat is better than none, right?” I ask, not having any idea how this shit works, but it seems to entertain her, so I’ll learn.

“I started to just search for things here and there with the searching spell when I read something I didn’t understand or if there was a particular topic I wanted to know about. Last night was the first time anything has shown up around the Primary bond when I searched, and there are hundreds of pages on a true Primary and their Nexus now,” she tells me with a little grin, letting me know she thought of that too and it didn’t work out.

“So he gave you a searching spell. You ask and whatever you ask for appears?” Caspian asks, finally looking up from his book, unable to ignore his own curiosity. He may not realize it yet, and neither may she, but they both can’t help their curious natures. I have no doubt they’ll be our group’s little detectives.

“Yep, pretty much,” she says before hesitating a little. “Is there something you want to search?” she asks him gently. This is her olive branch moment. He better not fuck this up.

He studies her for a moment before nodding and walking over to where she’s slightly holding her journal out. He takes a seat in the grass a few feet from her and accepts it. “Have you searched our powers yet?”

She blushes a charming pink, peeking through her bangs to look at me. “Only Draken’s, really. I tried to search mind reader when I found out Tillman could hear my thoughts, but the descriptions didn’t sound like his gift.”

My dragon preens in my chest. He enjoys the fact she wants to know about him.

“There wasn’t much information on Draken either, though. It explained shifters in general more than a shifter shifting into a dragon. The only mention was actual dragons, then Gaster’s personal notes on Draken.”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, little wanderer. Ask me anything, anytime,” I tell her, giving her my best smile. Going forward, she’ll never have to worry about secrets from me. Well, maybe a surprise party for her or one day, if she ever wants to have sex with me, I’ll have some surprises then, but no secrets that can hurt her or our relationship.

“There isn’t much in here about any of our gifts outside the very basics and Gaster’s notes. But this is what my gift’s referred to.” Caspian hands her the journal back and makes his way back to his book, picking it back up like he never left it.

“Shadow Walker,” Willow says with reverence. “Why not Shadow Bender like Corentin’s a Light Bender?”

“Caspian used to ask that all the time when we were younger.” Corentin snorts and shoots Caspian a small smile, earning himself a withering look that just causes us to laugh.

“Because the first time this gift was ever seen, all they could do was walk in the shadows, donning the name. I can do much more than that,” Caspian answers vaguely.

“The technical name for my gift is Mind Transference. Although yes, mind reader is much simpler,” Tillman informs Willow, whose face flushes bright red. “What?” Tillman follows up, catching her reaction.

“I did read a little on Mind Transference,” she says scarcely, blush deepening more.

“And?” Tillman pushes with an eyebrow raised at her.

“Uh, um.” She clears her throat a little. “Do you know the possibilities of what may happen to your gift, if we… uh, you know?” she asks, ducking her head, refusing to look at Tillman.

“They could become stronger. I could possibly look deeper into memories or possibly alter or erase them. But there’s no way of really telling since there isn’t information on what I can do now,” he informs her, but the look on her face says she knows a little more than that.

“Well, there’s also the possibility we can communicate with one another mentally, not how you can hear my voice, or can catch pieces of my thoughts now, but we’d be able to hold a conversation. There’s only been one other case, a thousand or so years ago, but they seemed to have had a strong Nexus as well.” Clearing her throat again, she looks around at all of us. “Uh, there’s also the possibility for all of us to be able to do that, if we, yeah, you know.”

We stare at her, stunned.

---