Page 23 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

I let it go again.

He sighed. “That’s better.”

“Just look at me sideways.” I winked and joined Ty on his way to mentor our divination affinity magus.

“Have you accepted the seat?” he asked me once we’d exited into a main tunnel.

I glanced up at him. “I’ve accepted that it’s a very hard seat and needs a cushion.”

He didn’t answer as we entered the divination center. I summoned my purple beanbag, and Ty settled onto a low cushion as I summoned the set of Ogham Staves he’d given me a couple of weeks ago.

“I recall beith, luis, ferm, and sail, and their properties. I’ve started my reading on Celtic ancients.” I relayed what I remembered of that, which was nearly everything, thanks to being a grimoire. Perks.

Ty listened, adding in information here and there that I hadn’t come across. “And did you explore the history of the staves?”

“Not yet, sir. I will.” There had been a bit to do, okay.

He summoned a stave from my pouch. “Today, we move on to duir. Tell me of this stave.”

At some point between novice and proven, a magus’s magic started to operate on an instinctual level. This increased through the proven journey. Rooke, for instance, could pick up this stave and just know things about it. She’d sense its nature and purpose without having prior experience with it. I wasn’t close to that with divination, but I was there in battle and apothecary, which helped me somewhat.

I took the stave, pushing my apothecary magic to test it. “Oak. I would say strength. Protection.”

Ty’s deep voice washed over me. “Open your divination affinity to the stave.”

I exhaled and closed my eyes, drifting up the affinity. I pushed energy through the channel to my fingertips holding the stave. I let the magic wash over the carved piece of oak. “Strength,” I repeated. “Protection. Something… unknown. Ahead of me?”

I opened one eyelid.

Ty nodded. “You are sensing that duir has the ability to open new doors and paths. That it will protect you while you walk both. Remember that the staves convey relationships between person, the spiritual and physical tree properties, and then the stave meaning itself. If you were to scatter the staves, duir may be particularly responsive if you are divining something about yourself—about a choice you had to make. Oak can be a symbol of leadership. It could be present in combination with other staves to let you know that a new door must be opened during your rule, but that you would be protected when walking through it.”

I wouldn’t mind that reassurance. “Can we scatter the staves?”

Ty murmured, “First we learn the meanings of the twenty staves. Then we begin to understand how they interact.” He paused. “There is something in your divination affinity.”

I nearly closed the affinity in panic. My chest barely confined my thumping heart. “Yeah.”

“What trauma caused it?”

He didn’t know what he was looking at. I released a quiet exhale. “The death of my family.”

“Such damage does not come from quiet deaths.”

Rich brown eyes were focused on me.

“No,” I admitted. The council was under the illusion that a car accident killed my family. I doubted they’d believed the lie. They’d also never questioned me further, and now I’d disbanded them, they couldn’t do anything about it anyway. “I gained my divination affinity upon their murders.”

Ty stiffened at the last word. “I’m very sorry, High Esteemed. I can feel what it has done.”

I swallowed. “I believe exploring this affinity is the answer to healing.”

“Have you considered a journey?”

I pursed my lips. “I have undertaken several journeys back. Each ended in chaos. Chaos that got worse rather than better.”

He was quiet. “I see. There is much to respect about the power of chaos.”

I met his gaze. “Yes, there is, sir. I’ve spent an eternity there.”

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