Page 74 of In Death's Hands
“What, you think we can only influence humans?”
I blink at her a few times. Standing in front of the bed, hands on her hips and wearing a battle face, she looks two steps away from changing me into a toad. Or making me marry one.Who knows what she can truly do. “I’m guessing that means you caninfluenceothers like you?”
She shrugs. “We all can, to some extent.”
Pressing my hands to my face, I let a groan carry some of my many frustrations out. “I’m too hung-over for this talk.”
“Fine by me,” she says, a smile at the ready on her pouty lips.
“Wait!” I wince at the volume of my own voice but can’t let things drop. “I need answers, Turan. I can’t keep stumbling my way through your world, not knowing a single thing about you guys.”
“You know more than most.”
“But not enough. Look at me, look at what happened last night! I was seconds away from jumping Nathan and Atys, for crying out loud.” She snorts but regains her composure quickly when she sees my face. “It’s not funny. I need to know what I’m walking into. How to protect myself.”
Sighing, she comes to sit on the bed next to me. “For the record, you were never in any danger last night. Neither one of them would have done anything to you when they both knew your mind wasn’t clear.”
It doesn’t make me feel any better, for some reason. Maybe because theinfluenceof Thalnus only seemed to bring out desires I was not willing to look at. Desires that seemed to be answered later that same night only to be squashed mercilessly. What a disaster my life is…
“As for the rest,” Turan continues, “ask and I shall try to answer. But know that it’ll be hard for any of us to answer you. Secrecy is ingrained in us. We may want to be honest with you, but the truth sometimes seems to fight us to stay hidden.”
What a strange way to say they’re used to keeping secrets. Either way, I see it as my chance to learn more. I wish it had come at a time when my head wasn’t screaming bloody murder, but I’ll take what I can. “So, you guys can use your powers on each other?”
She nods. “As I said, only to some extent. The strongest among us are the Crown bearers. The rest of us are sorted on the ladder depending on our skills and the amount of power we can wield. For example, I could heal minor injuries on Thalnus or Veltha as they are rulers and demand a lot of strength and power. But Veltha, as the bearer of the Crown of Roots, she would be able to heal almost everyone.”
“You’re from that Crown, right?”
“Yes, and because of that, I’m able to heal some wounds as well. The body is rooted in the Earth, so most of us from that Crown can influence and speed up the natural healing process.”
“But that’s not your main power, is it?”
She shakes her head but stays silent.
“Can you tell me about it?” I ask gently, feeling that it’s a difficult subject for her.
Taking a big breath, she explains, “Humans are made of blood and earth. Like animals, you are an inherent part of this world. The planet itself breathes. She rises and falls, breaks and floods, when put through too much. Your emotions are a mirror of that natural cycle. Just like we can influence the Earth, so too can some of us influence the chemicals in your body. My influence over some of the hormones that create emotions comes from there.”
“Influence over love?”
She nods. “Love, desire, heartbreak… It’s all less exciting than you humans would like to believe.”
I don’t know about that. “So your role…?”
“Is to follow the Order. That’s what all of us do. And for me, that means I use my influence on certain people, at certain times, ensuring some pairings and events that will keep the Order flowing.”
“You’re like Cupid then? If someone falls in love, it’s due to you?”
“No.” She snorts. “If I had arrows, I’d probably use them on my own eyes.” I frown, feeling like that’s not entirely a joke, but she moves on before I can ask what she means. “For most people it happens organically. But for others, there is a need behind it, and we can’t leave it up to chance. Love is energy that can create momentum in a society, new beings that are supposed to do certain things. Heartbreak is also a harbinger of change. Both of those emotions are so strong that they can shift entire trajectories. For good or bad.”
I stay quiet for a while, needing time to digest all of this, but her obvious reluctance to talk about it makes me want to pry deeper. “And you don’t… like doing that?”
“It’s not that.” She sighs. “I… I just never know what the consequences are. We all have those instincts pushing us to perform our duties, but only the Fates can see where the road truly leads.”
“Something happened, didn’t it?”
She nods, eyes locked on her hands.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
