Page 92 of Cry of the Firebird

"So I keep hearing," Anya said, toying with her bag of runes.

"We don't need to talk about Yanka. We need to talk about you to try and understand what your abilities are." Chayton offered her his hand.

"Are you sure you want to risk it?" Anya was afraid to touch it in case she sent another one of them flying.

"It will be fine, Anya." Very slowly, she placed her own palm over his. Nothing happened. The heat between their hands was building slowly.

"I have learned to block magic leaks. Honaw was unprepared for your reaction or how much power you had," Chayton explained. "When two people with magic touch, their power also touches. Sometimes it's very mild, like a faint tingle or static electricity…"

"Or you get blown across the room," Honaw added.

Anya cringed, but he was smiling when he said it.

"What else?" she asked.

"Power is hereditary, but it also changes with each child. Sometimes there is more power passed on to one child, whereas their sibling can get nothing."

"Apparently, my father had no magic," Anya said, nodding her head.

"And yet here you are, full to bursting with it. Katya told us about your grandfather, the memory spell, and his reasons for doing it. I suppose we will find out if you have as much magic as Yanka soon enough," Honaw said. "Tell me about your childhood."

It was Anya's least favorite subject, but they had traveled too far for her to not accept their help. She told them about the farm, about the village, Eikki and the memories he had stolen. Chayton and Honaw looked at each thoughtfully a few times, wordless messages passing between them. When she got to the problem of the gates, Honaw chuckled.

"What's funny?" Anya asked him.

"The fact that Eikki hid your memories but didn't consider that the farm itself would've been so drenched with power, you've probably unconsciously felt its magic your entire life and thought that it was normal," Honaw replied.

Anya frowned. "What do you mean? I told you Eikki hid everything from me."

"Anya, you grew up on a nexus of power. Double crossroads. Not only is your farm the crossroads of Russia and Karelia butalso Russia and Skazki. It's no surprise your family established themselves there and never moved. It also explains the depth of the power that you have. Even the forest next to you was magical. You ate the food grown in that soil. There's so much magic in every layer of you that it feels normal to you," Chayton explained. He flicked through Eikki's journals, staring at the drawings with a delighted expression. "I think I would have liked your grandfather. Did he tell you stories?"

Anya leaned back against the couch. "Yeah, all the time before he put the memory spell on me. Myths and fairytales and folk songs. Everything from the Kalevala to the Norse Poetic Eddas to Russian legends. There were things he composed himself. He was always whispering rhymes to the trees and singing to the wild reindeer that used to turn up occasionally."

"Our people are also great storytellers," Honaw said and glanced at his brother. "Maybe that's our way in?"

"What do you mean?" Anya asked.

"Stories have power. Your people have a long oral history, Anya. I'm sure you know some of the stories off by heart. In the old songs and stories lie ancient wisdom and knowledge," Chayton explained. "We can teach you to harness the power of your tongue. We aren't talking about specially formulating spells. That's unnecessary. Magic is about not only innate power but intent. Sometimes it's good to have words to shape that intent. We can teach you how to use illusions, using story as a training foundation too."

"It will be fun. You can tell us the stories of your peoples, and we will be able to tell you the stories of ours," Honaw said with a smile. "I'm sure Trajan has copies of your legends if you need to brush up on them. The stories of your land will always reveal their secrets to you because they call to your blood. They are the stories that built the land you were born on. Their magic is in you. You just have to remember them."

Anya thought it over, so much more of Eikki making sense every day. He would sing the Kalevala rune songs to her on dark nights and told her the importance of knowing the origin of everything in nature. If a shaman knew how all things came to being, like the great shaman Väinämöinen, they could command and manipulate that thing with their magic to do their bidding.

"You know the affinity you have with fire actually might explain why it was your power that helped the firebird hatch," Chayton said thoughtfully. "That egg was meant to have been in your family for years. I'm sure they all would have handled it and maybe tried to wake it up with their own magic, and yet it was in your possession for a night, and boom! Firebird reborn."

"I feel Fate's hands all over this," Honaw grunted and then shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It was bound to happen at some point."

"Can I ask you both something? Why are you helping me? Katya said that you are both Powers in America. Why come all this way to try and teach someone magic that isn't even one of your people?" Anya asked.

"The enemy of our enemy is our friend," Honaw said.

"Vasilli?" Anya guessed.

"The Darkness in general, but mostly Ladislav and Vasilli. Ladislav and the Darkness encouraged the Europeans to try and colonize America. They wanted to see what magic was there that they could exploit. They almost destroyed our people, our land, and our culture. We want revenge for that, just as a beginning," Honaw growled.

"There is also growing Darkness activity all through our country, and the Neutrals have been raising concerns with us. We've seen their war coming with the Illumination, and the rest of the supernaturals are bound to suffer because of it. If we can help you be the one to stop Vasilli and the Darkness here in Europe, it may save us from more pain in the future," Chaytonsaid and put a hand on her shoulder. "You will find that once it's known you are a strong enemy of Vasilli with the firebird on your side, a lot of Neutrals will want to help you. You will have allies everywhere."

Anya laughed. She couldn't help it. The thought she could take on a man that could collapse a house with a twist of his hand was unfathomable. "I can't promise you that I'll ever be strong enough to take on Vasilli, but I will do my best. I have to close the gates on my farm first. They are the most pressing deadline. After that, I'll do everything I can to stop Vasilli."

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