The Willbreaker (Book 1) (37 page)

              Jasmine stood up and rushed over to Brandon, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. She waited all night to do so and she could not hold out any longer. He wrapped his arms around her tight, feeling his tension and stress fade away from the warm embrace. Her body felt wonderful, warm, and living. It brought the situation into perspective; his focus could not be solely on Aurora, he needed to remember life, love, and family.

              Jasmine pulled away momentarily to look into Brandon’s face. She had tear streaks down her cheeks but she smiled happily. After a quick look into his eyes, she buried her head in his chest and squeezed him tight.

              “I’m so glad you are alright. I thought you were going to die.” She whispered.

              Brandon said nothing, but comforted her by rubbed his hand up and down her back.

              Jasmine gave him one last squeeze and then backed away, going to sit down next to Edward. Edward lost himself in thought. He wanted to know more about Brandon’s transformation and his newfound power. He had not touched his own magic since being nearly blinded by the strange white light earlier in the day. The idea of it frightened him, but his confidence slowly grew. Edward unshielded the coolness of his power and cautiously pulled in smalls breaths of it. As he did, a radiant light grew in intensity. The brilliant white light emanated from Brandon. Edward realized the light came from Brandon’s aura. His ability to see people’s auras became a hobby for Edward. It interested him how they changed. Emotions, feelings, and even the weather could change one’s aura. Their size, shape, and color would vary from day to day. That is what attracted Edward’s attention to Brandon; his golden aura never wavered or changed.  Now, for the first time since they met, Brandon’s aura
had
changed. Its brilliant and celestial white light seemed to flood the world in its greatness.  Edward could not pull the full power of his gift because he thought the light would blind him.

              As he quelled that aspect of his gift, he once again became overwhelmed with surprise. Brandon’s power baffled Edward. Through his power, Edward could read the potency of another person’s magic ability. He learned through study and experience what the different feelings translated to according to the world’s classification of magic. Edward could look at any person who could call upon magic and he could tell you what field of magic they could control and at what degree. In a single look, Edward knew that Jasmine could channel from the Body sphere, Transformation, and at class level three. He could do this to everyone he looked at, except Brandon.

              He could feel that Brandon pulled from the Will aspect of the Spirit sphere, but nothing else. He could not focus in on the depth of the power until now. As he shifted his power away from the aura reading, Edward felt the extensive amount of power that Brandon could access. The pool of magic Edward pulled from paled in comparison, and Edward had access to above average magic. He had Control of Mind, which gave him the ability to access two different aspects of the Mind sphere; in his case, Psionics and Sensor. Edward’s available pool of magic stood like a candle compared to Brandon’s power, which rivaled the blazing furnace of the Sun.

              Edward, awe struck, thought about the potential of Brandon’s abilities. Taken back by the depth of it, he tipped backwards over the log he shared with Jasmine and fell on his rear. Brandon perked up and moved quickly over to help him up. Jasmine twisted and grabbed his arm, helping him back to a sitting position.

              Edward could not pull his eyes from Brandon.

              “Edward, what’s the matter? You are looking at me like you just saw a ghost.”

              Edward stuttered, still bearing the same look on his face. “Ba…ba…ba…”

              “What? Are you okay?” Brandon reached down and grabbed ahold of Edward’s arm, holding him so he would not fall back over.

              “Edward?” Jasmine asked. She now looked concerned.

              Edward turned his head to look at Jasmine and then immediately back to Brandon.

              “What is it, Edward? Please, speak to me!” Brandon said with concern.

              Edward recognized that he caused Brandon and Jasmine confusion so he consciously eased his look of astonishment.

              “Brandon, your power…” He said slowly. “I can finally read it.”

              Jasmine turned her head to look at Edward. The tone in his voice frightened her.

              “You are worrying me, Edward. What is the problem?” Brandon said.

              “Brandon, I don’t understand. You power is magnificent. I have only seen your power levels in…” He paused again. Brandon sighed quickly.

              “Come on Edward, spit it out.”

              Edward took a breath and spoke clearly. “I have only seen power levels like yours, well, actually, I have never actually seen anyone with power levels as high as yours. I have seen a handful of the Gifted who can wield their power at class four level. Donald was one of those Gifted. But you, Brandon, you are beyond that. I can see it now. You are a class five Gifted.”

              As he finished speaking, Jasmine put her fingers over her mouth as she gasped. Her full attention focused on Brandon.

              Brandon did not know what it meant to be considered a class five Gifted, but he did know that the coolness he could feel in his mind seemed boundless. It slept there, waiting to be summoned, an epic beast ready for action. Brandon sat in the shadow of it, the titanic form of ethereal force looming over his mind, waiting for his command. Brandon mastered the magic only he could control or release it.

              “Brandon?” Edward asked quietly.

              “Yes, friend?”

              “Are you really a class five Gifted? And why am I feeling that there is more to you than just Will? I would not believe it if I was not sitting right here. I’ve followed you since the day we became friends, and these feelings and senses are all new.”

              “I’m not totally sure of how it happened. One helped me figure it out; he helped me remove the blocks that diluted my power.” As he spoke, he remembered what One told him about Aurora.
My mother?
He remembered how Edward told him about Aurora when they first travelled from Greylin. As a child, she excelled in psionics. Her mother sent her to train with a man named Korgen Kitadel, a teacher at the school for the Gifted. Her ability came easy to her. Korgen, assigned by the Director’s Board to instruct her, helped her advance her power.

              Korgen betrayed the trust of the teachers and students alike, when one late night he locked himself in the room with Aurora, just a young woman, and forced himself upon her. Edward told Brandon what he read from the history books. Aurora entered a comatose state for eleven months. The rape of Aurora could have produced a child, and she would never know because of her unconscious state.
Could it be? Could I really be the child of the Empress?
The healers could have delivered the baby, and possibly the baby would have been sent away to be taken care of by another family. When Aurora awoke and murdered everyone in the school, the secret of the baby could have been lost.

              His mind worked in a hundred different directions but he realized he had not finished his conversation with Edward. He did not know how to tell Edward that Aurora might be his mother.

              “I can feel the full depth of the coolness now, and I can do more than heal. I am not sure exactly how I know, but I guess you can describe it as instinct. It is like running or climbing a ladder, I just know how to do it. I can control all of the sides of Spirit. I can feel it and I know it.”

              “Unity of Spirit? All four sides?” Edward’s worried look turned to a look of amazement and excitement. “You can touch Vision, Life, and Death too? That is incredible! Are you sure? What is that like? How does that feel? Can we use that to help us in our journey? Can you…”

              “Edward. Edward! Calm down, please. There is something else I must tell you, something of great importance.”

              Edward’s look of excitement turned to concern as he looked at Jasmine.

              “Please, sit, there is something that I must tell you. You must know if we are going to continue this journey. I think that Aurora may be my mother.”

Silence swept over the camp as they stared at Brandon as if he became another person. He told more of his vision of the Umbrasphere and the conversation he had with One. They listened as he talked, neither one asking questions. It all made sense as he explained it.

He ended the conversation with his uncertainty of it all, but let them know the possibility could be real.

“We need to reach Orlimay, and if we leave at first light, we should arrive at the same time as Reinhold’s armies. Once there, we’ll have to see what happens,” said Brandon. He knew that Reinhold would be there when they arrived. In a shadowy vision that danced on the side of his mind, Brandon saw himself sitting on the edge of a tree line, the majestic city of Orlimay ahead of him in the clearing. As he looked to his right, he could see the Banner of the Red Lion, held high by the infantry of the King. The trees behind the banner men shuffled with movement, the indistinguishable armies of the King.

              Brandon did not need to concentrate or sleep to see this. It rested there in his mind, like a future memory. The Vision aspect of his powers worked at a subconscious level, and he knew it would happen just as he knew the sun would go down.

              Edward nodded, and Jasmine simply said, “Alright.”

              The fire still crackled in the fire pit. Jasmine slept as Brandon and Edward watched the flames eat the left over logs within the stone-ringed pit. Occasionally, the Guardian’s heavy footsteps crunched through the woods as he moved around.

              Brandon thought about the new understanding he gained from his interactions with One. He understood with the Life aspect of his powers; he devoted the early years of his life to his skill in healing. After he accepted the title of Willbreaker though, he gained extensive knowledge of his other abilities. The Spirit sphere, the sphere that Brandon controlled, consisted of four aspects: Life, Death, Vision, and Will.

              Life effected attributes of the living, like healing of wounds, curing of sickness, and even regeneration of limbs. Town healers and medics often use this power, and is the most gifted ability of the Spirit sphere. Some gifted in life became famous shadows of powerful kings and queens, providing long lasting lives free of sickness and wounds. Others learned the art of war, unstoppable warriors and fighters who could heal their wounds in mid-combat. One of these warriors, an arctic barbarian, could use his ability to heal so efficiently he regrew his own dismembered arm in the middle of a single fight.

              Death gave the controller manipulations of the spirit after life. It contained power regarding the absence of life and the ability to see and control those manipulations. With Death, one had the capacity to see and speak to restless spirits, as well as alter and change the connection of life to the afterlife. A famous Death user, Vilka Beck, sat alongside the Lord of Surdar, the desert kingdom north of the Tusk mountain range. Vilka, a class five Gifted, broke the ties of the fallen armies of Surdar to the afterlife, enabling them to walk amongst the living. Their ethereal bodies and weapons were brought into the same plane as the living, allowing them to interact and fight in this world. Vilka and his ghostly army destroyed the Lord of Surdar’s standing forces and he reigned as King of the Undead for sixty years.

              Vision grants foresight and images of future events. Certain scholars and teachers believe that déjà vu is an after effect of vision use. Along with Death and Will, Visionary Gifted are scarce. Known as Seers in some lands, Visionary Gifted wrote all of the recorded prophecies.

              The most rare and specialized aspect of Spirit is Will. Will is the least studied of all the aspects, due to the small amount of people able to channel within the aspect, but Gifted believe it to be more powerful than any of the others. Its power is often subtle and there are no flashing fires or floating objects to signal that Will has been touched. It involves conscious and unconscious thoughts and desires to act certain ways. It affects the power of choosing one’s own actions and the process of using or asserting one’s choices. Some say that will bending is similar to mind control, but they are technically as different as water and rock. Mind control is implanting actions or forcing a person to do as the controller wishes; typically a controlled use of power that could be against the wishes of the controlled. With will bending, the controller bends or breaks the target’s free will, allowing them to make choices and decisions on their own, targeted around the ideas sculpted and created by the controller. It essentially rewrites their minds and makes them process the embedded thoughts as their own.

              People test their will when trying to do things they are determined to do, such as keeping secrets or losing weight. The stronger their will, the more likely they are to succeed in their goals and plans. Kings have used torture techniques to break the wills of the captured, searching for secrets and information regarding their foes. Pain is a good destructor of will.

              There are side effects of will bending though. In order to bend another’s will, the user must transfer his consciousness into the will of his target. By doing so, the user is able to model the new will from their own or change it based on views or opinions crafted from their conscious thought. This leaves traces of the bender within the target and alters some physical trait within the target. The stronger the bender, the less obvious the changes are.

              Brandon remembered Florian, the Bauth’Dok slave driver. His hair, even his eyebrows, were white as snow. All of the slave drivers looked that way, an obvious alteration of their minds, performed by the Bauth’Dok Blademaster himself. Brandon nodded, seeing why Florian repeated the words of the Bauth’Dok as if they were his own.

“You are evil, conniving demons. You and yours alike seek the metal that my masters claim, for yourselves. You want the power. You want the energy it possesses. It is not your metal to take. My masters cannot survive without it. You pay for your evil ways down here, mining. Consider yourself lucky, mule. You have been chosen to earn your forgiveness. You have been chosen to mine for us, and in your death, you shall earn forgiveness."

              Those words were of the Blademaster and Florian believed they were his own, right down to his core. It all made sense now.

              The thoughts of the slave drivers made Brandon curious. He changed the will of the Kella’Dune.
Did the Guardian change any?

              Brandon stood up straight, looking back into the woods. Edward perked up to attention at Brandon’s quick movement.

              “Is everything alright?”

              “Guardian!” With one word, the Guardian crashed through the trees, quickly entering the camp, ready to attack. It had its giant hands clenched in massive fists and its eyes darted around the camp looking for trouble.

              “It’s okay friend, I just want to look at you.” Brandon said, raising his hand the giant’s face. As he did, the tense muscles of the beast eased and it lowered its head, placing its cheek against Brandon’s hand. The head of the Guardian equaled the size of a wagon wheel, only round and solid. Brandon looked deeply at the impressive creature’s face.
The eyes.

              Brandon did not see it before, perhaps because the beast stood so tall. Its eyes were not black like the others; they were a soft and comforting blue, the same blue as Brandon’s eyes. He smiled gently, tapping his hand on the beasts head.

              “Thank you, good friend. I feel much safer with you here.” The beast briefly closed it eyes with Brandon’s touch, stood and then crept back into the woods.

              Edward watched intently. As Brandon returned to the fire, Edward looked at him questioningly. Brandon spoke before Edward had a chance to ask questions.

              “When the Guardian was going after you, I managed to change its will. The residual effect of my magic turned its eyes blue. It is a side effect of the will bending process. I wanted to see it for myself.”

              Edward nodded and then scrunched his eyebrows deep, as if realizing something monumental. He covered his face in an open palm.

              “What, Edward?”

              Edward looked at Brandon. “Back in Darrow’s Hold, I knew it. I knew there was something that I was missing. This is not the first time you bent the will of another, Brandon.”

              Brandon looked interested.

              “The woman in the red robes, the flame wielder that attacked us in the Hold, do you remember anything in particular about her?”

              Brandon shook his head. “Nothing special, why?”

              “Right before she was going to light us aflame, do you remember me yelling to stop?”

              “Yes, you yelled at Jasmine to wait as she ran her through with her sword. Still not totally sure what you were up to.”

              “She started crying, like she realized what she was doing was wrong. She was not the same person as she was, she changed! Did you see the color of her eyes?” Edward did not stop talking but Brandon shook his head no. “Her eyes were blue, just like yours. I believe in the desperation of that moment, you bent her will. It has been bothering me since we left Darrow’s Hold. I had the strangest feeling of déjà vu over that.”

              Brandon did not remember; that seemed so long ago.

              “Perhaps it was, if I was able to do that back then. Or perhaps it was something else. I’m not sure.”

              “It all makes so much sense now. Ha!” He barked, hitting his hand upon his knee. Edward smiled happily. “You have been able to change people’s wills this whole time, who would have known?”

              Brandon shook his head, disregarding Edward’s words. Brandon remember when he felt normal and he like the feeling. He liked to remember the times when the weight of the world did not rest on his shoulders. Things were simpler back then. Everything seemed easier, but those times were gone.

              The two men sat around the fire in silence; it felt peaceful and relaxing. The heat comforted them both. Brandon stared into the coals. Edward reached behind him and grabbed a small handful of berries they picked a few hours earlier. He popped one into his mouth.

              Brandon watched Edward chew on the berry and got an idea.

              “Hey, Edward, would you mind if I tried something, if I tried something on you?”

              “You mean with your magic? I suppose, as long as it is safe.”

              “I will not hurt you, I promise, I just want to experiment with something.”

              Edward threw another berry into his mouth.

              “Are those berries tasty? Do you want to eat them?”

              Edward nodded, looking at Brandon oddly. “Yes, they are fine, and yes, I want to eat them.”

              “Ok. Do you plan on finishing the berries in your hand?”

              “Yes, that’s an odd question.”

              “Bear with me.”

              Brandon opened up the barriers of his mind, letting the coolness sweep over him. It flooded his mind, rushing through his veins like ice water. He opened his mind to Edward, entering his thoughts. A hundred of them ran through Edward’s consciousness. Each though expanded from his central core like strands of energy. Brandon sifted through them, seeking one in particular. He looked past thoughts of Jasmine, the Empress, and the Guardian, all sorted in columns. Brandon saw Greylin, Edward’s sister, and even an image of himself. He sifted deeper, looking for the little things. The campfire, the hardness of the log beneath his rear and then he found it: the desire to eat the berries, to satiate his hunger. It appeared as a smoky image, connected to Edward’s mind with a thin glowing string, blue as the ocean. Brandon grabbed ahold of the string, and plucked it. The string vibrated to Brandon’s strum, but it did not break. Brandon heard the tone of his magic.

              “Edward, do you want to eat those berries?”

              “Yes, Brandon, I already told you that.”

              Edward raised his hand, as if attempting to pop another berry, but his arm stopped halfway to his mouth. Edward’s mouth hung open. He lowered his hand as his arm began to shake.

              “What the…” He tried another time, lowering his arm and then raising it fast, but the arm stopped halfway again while his fingers held the berry tight.

              “I… I can’t.” He said, looking slightly frightened and confused.

              Brandon hid his small smile. “Why can’t you?”

              Edward looked at Brandon. He knew that Brandon somehow prevented him from eating the berry. He did not know what he did, or how he did it, he had a terrible fear of eating the berry, although he knew there was nothing to be afraid of.

              “Please, Edward, tell me what you are feeling. Why can’t you eat the berry?”

              Edward looked around, searching for the words. “I really want to, but I just can’t. I have that feeling of uncertainty and terror. It’s like trying to jump a gorge to get to another piece of land, but the distance is too great, and the fall is too far. I do not think I can do it. My body will not cooperate with me. This is the strangest feeling.” He tried again, but he hesitated, until failure. Brandon reached again and withdrew his touch.

              Edward tried hard to eat that berry and now without the hesitation, the berry flew out of his hand and hit him in the eye.

              Brandon burst out laughing. Edward gave Brandon a dirty look before he too started laughing.

              “Alright, one more test if you don’t mind, Edward. You are a psionicist, but I have never seen you use the ability. Any reason?”

              “Yeah, after I use the psionic side of my powers, I get terrible headaches. I am not sure why it happens, but the inconvenience of it tends to make me withhold those abilities.”

              “Well, if it is alright with you, would you access your psionic ability for me, just for a moment?”

              Edward looked at the ground and focused on a rock the size of an acorn. With a small twitch of his eye, the pebble shook, and slowly rose from the ground. The small feat impressed Brandon. He had never watched anyone levitate something with their mind.

              The rock stopped floating upward at eye level and Edward smiled.