Page 7 of Curse of Immortality
Althea put the bowl of berries down and took her aunt’s hands while Maeve hugged Rose from behind and kissed her shoulder. This was the first time that Rose had been able to relax since she had awoken from her night terror. However, just the thought of it made her heartbeat speed up. “No.” She sighed and pulled the girls into a hug where she kissed them both on the head. “I would rather get started with the day. Go take a seat, breakfast is almost done.”
Althea and Maeve set the table and took a seat in the creaky wooden chairs, but they kept a close eye on their aunt and worried for her. The girls didn’t know about the anguish Rose had experienced and how it haunted her, but they knew that she didn’t get enough sleep and that much of the time she looked like she was in another world. They worried for her. However, Althea and Maeve never knew the worst of it since Rose always felt the calmest when she was in their company. The three of them were close and rarely got into arguments, which made their lives peaceful.
The morning sun shone through the windows as they sat at the small table eating their breakfast and chatting about what to do with their day. Rose was just about to take another bite of her bread when the sound of a bird landing on the windowsill made her turn her head.
“Maeve, I want you to listen to what she’s saying,” Rose instructed. Althea had mastered communicating with animals when she was ten, but Maeve often struggled.
“I know you excel when it comes to making potions but communicating with animals and listening for the flowers that hold the healing rootling is closely related.”
Maeve groaned because somehow her hearing wasn’t as sharp as her sister’s after all the years of practicing. It frustrated her whenever Althea would stand in a meadow with wildflowers and listen for only a brief moment before searching out the one flower among thousands that held a healing rootling in its root.
“There’s no need to groan. You’re superior when it comes to making potions. But you’ll need those rootlings for the most powerful ones so you’d better practice listening,” Rose insisted, giving a supportive nod.
With a look of concentration, Maeve focused on the small bird, trying to understand its message. When that didn’t help, she closed her eyes and listened again. All she heard was chirping.
With a sigh of defeat, Maeve threw her hands up. “I have no clue.”
“Darling.” Rose tilted her head and gave Maeve a tired smile. “The more your mind demands to understand the bird, the more you’re separating yourself from it. Remember that you and the bird are one, just as we all are. It takes practice, but as soon as you accept that and stop trying to force it, it will come.”
“Let me try again.” Maeve stood up from her chair and walked over to the bird. When she stretched her pale hand out, the small bird hopped onto it and continued chirping. Closing her eyes, Maeve imagined herself and the bird melting together, and loved the bird as if it were her own eyes and ears.
When mental images appeared in her mind’s eye, her lips pursed up in a smile but when she recognized the image her smile disappeared. “I see a small girl who is much too pale and tired.”
“Wonderful, Maeve, well done,” Rose praised her and elaborated on the bird’s message. “The girl has been sick for some time, but she’s not getting proper treatment because the priest has told her family that she is possessed.”
Althea and Rose had both understood the bird’s message the moment it entered their home. After thanking the small bird for its message, Rose faced the girls. “I wish there was something we could do, but the world has turned its back on us healers. We can’t risk offering our help.”
“Rose?” Althea’s expression was pleading. “We can’t just let her die. Isn’t there something we can do? What if we came with you? We are safer in a group, and we have to learn how to heal and care for humans eventually.”
Rose’s throat sank to the bottom of her stomach. She knew that Althea was right, in theory. An Earthen’s role had always been to heal and care for all living beings and the truth was that it was far overdue in the girls’ training. Rose herself had worked with her parents to learn from them as she grew up. Althea and Maeve were already of age to be healers, but she hadn’t been able to teach them to heal anyone but each other and the animals and plants in the forest. Her priority had always been to keep the girls safe and hidden in the forest and away from civilization. Rose couldn’t bear the thought of losing them just as she had lost everyone else whom she cared for.
The small voice of her father whispered inside her that a life of hiding from your destiny is not truly living at all.
“It’s not that I don’t want to help the sick girl that the bird is telling us about. But we can’t risk it just yet.”
“But then when?” Maeve asked with her hands falling to her sides in defeat. “I’m dying to see something other than this forest.”
Rose scratched her shoulder and looked away. The subject always made her nervous. “Maybe I can take you to town one day, but not until you have full control of your abilities.”
“We do,” Maeve claimed. “You can test us if you don’t believe me.”
Rose wanted to end the argument and decided to give a test so difficult that the girls wouldn’t pass. “Alright. Follow me,” she instructed and walked out into the small field behind their home. Althea and Maeve eagerly followed and once they stood beside her, she knelt and pressed her palm a few inches above the dry summer grass. When a small flame lit and began to spread, she rose back up. “Extinguish the fire.”
Althea and Maeve looked at each other with large eyes. Rose often challenged them when it came to learning but controlling the elements was an advanced skill, especially at the age of fourteen.
Rose didn’t tell the girls that despite being a fast learner herself, she hadn’t mastered the control of fire until she was seventeen.
Rose would rather give her nieces a life of hiding from their destiny than for them not to have a life at all.
“We blow out candles, so maybe we should try to use air,” Maeve pondered out loud as she got down to her knees in front of the small orange flame.
Both girls placed their hands in front of the fire and visualized wind flowing through them. When nothing happened, Maeve bit her bottom lip and looked at her sister.
“Maybe it will work if we channel our energy together.” Althea scooted closer to Maeve so that they were shoulder to shoulder. But once again no wind emerged from their efforts.
Althea’s face filled with freckles turned in the direction of her sister. “We need more emotion. Remember what Rose said a few years ago when she taught us about the elements? She said that we set off the fire in the barn because of our emotional outburst. If emotions are the way to control the elements, then we need to find strong emotions within ourselves somehow.”
Maeve looked over her shoulder to their aunt, who was carefully watching them. “Yes, but how?”
