Myriad
Chapter 5

Edward stood in the corner of the room, his shirt soaked in blood. The only sound in the room was Myriad crying, desperately clutching Machayla’s body as she lay on the bed. Their son, his skin blue, lay across her legs. Machayla had died in childbirth. Neither she nor the child had a chance, both ravaged by the sickness. The child was small, stillborn, and a month early.

Myriad wept, clinging to his wife, his long hair covering her.

Edward stared at the floor, unable to move. He’d been Myriad’s servant for the last seven of his eighteen years, but he’d never seen Myriad like this. He dared to step forward, but the sound of his footsteps made Myriad sharply lift his head. Edward froze, unable to breathe.

Myriad looked at Edward through red-rimmed eyes, as if he’d forgotten he was there. He frowned, then turned back to his wife. He rose slowly, still holding her limp hand.

Edward wished desperately he could disappear. A feeling of dread crept up inside of him. He waited anxiously for Myriad to react, knowing he would. He knew he was….

Myriad thrust out his arm, and an invisible force smashed Edward back against the wall.

Edward slumped to the ground, pain searing his side. He clutched what he knew were his broken ribs, and then he was punched on the right side of his face. He lay on the ground, curled up, trying to shield himself from the blows. The all-too-familiar blows.

As the darkness began to overtake Edward, he knew his almost two years of peace had ended. Truthfully, he knew it would end the moment Machayla became ill. He slipped away, blacking out, his punishment continuing. It had only begun….

After lunch, Kalin sat in the back garden before a blackened table, several candles spread across its surface. He gritted his teeth, trying for the twentieth time to light one of them. He shut his eyes, concentrated on feeling a connection to his powers, then pointed at the candle.

An enormous flame spread from his hand, setting the table surface alight. Again.

Kalin waved his hand and water splashed across the table, extinguishing the flames. He’d had to learn to create water very quickly. He wondered how long the now-charred table could take his “practicing” when he saw Regina walking towards him. He immediately straightened, hoping he wasn’t covered in soot.

She giggled as she sat beside him, reaching into the pocket of her trousers and handing him a handkerchief.

He quickly wiped his face, then his hands, and put the cloth on the table.

“Theodore wanted me to rescue you,” she said, smiling. “He thought you might need a break from physical magic. He wanted me to teach you about psychic visions.”

Kalin rubbed the back of his neck. “Is that something you can teach me? I mean, don’t visions just… come to you?”

“Sometimes, yes,” Regina said. “You can’t generally force it. Sometimes a vision will come to you in a dream or when you’re doing an ordinary task. But you can also try to read from something and bring about a vision that way. You should be able to receive them like me, since you’re a universal, but how they’ll come to you or if it will be any time soon, I can’t say. Have you ever gotten the sense you’d seen the future when you were younger?”

Kalin thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, if I saw the future as a child, I might not remember. I don’t know, really.” He looked at his hands, wanting to ask Regina something, something he’d been wondering about since Theodore had said she’d had a vision of him. He looked at her, feeling a little nervous, his breath caught in his throat. Finally, he just came out with it.

“Regina, when you… saw me, in your vision… what exactly did you see? I mean, how did you know I was a universal from your vision? How could you be sure?”

Regina looked at him for a moment, then lowered her head, her hair shielding her face from him, and Kalin wondered if he’d said something wrong, if he’d offended her.

She laughed softly. “I don’t really want to tell you this,” she said. “I mean, you’ll think… well….” She paused, gazing at him for a moment.

Kalin felt his heart start to beat faster, and his curiosity awaken inside of him.

Regina blushed slightly. “It was… it was more than one vision,” she said, lowering her head again. “It was every night. And every day. For the last two weeks. I saw you at the inn where Theodore met you. I saw you training with us. I saw….” Regina paused again, taking a deep breath. “I saw you as a child, using your powers. I didn’t see much about your childhood, Kalin—I don’t want you to think I invaded your privacy. I wasn’t trying to receive the visions—they just came to me! But I saw you when you were younger, using your magic, and I knew you were a universal. And I know you’re the one who can help us.”

She looked at him again, and Kalin felt amazed, overwhelmed—and a brightness in his heart that he had been in her mind. He also felt a little guilty. It wasn’t his fault, but he felt concerned that Regina didn’t want the visions of him, that they were an imposition on her. But what he mostly felt was happiness that he was in her thoughts, that she believed in him. She saw me for two weeks? Maybe this is real. He realized he was staring at her and hurriedly looked away.

“I’ll try not to let you all down,” he said, looking at his hands. “Was there anything else?” He glanced back at her.

Regina gazed at him, a small smile on her lips, and then she nodded. “Theodore wanted me to try to get a reading from you, to see if there’s anything I can learn about the next few weeks. Do you have something I can read from?”

Kalin hesitated a moment, then gently removed his leather bracelet and handed it to her.

She put it on her right palm and rested her other hand over it. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. They sat silently for a long time, the only sound the wind rustling in the trees. Regina took another deep breath, fidgeting slightly.

Kalin gazed at her lovely pale skin, her soft pink lips. Another long moment passed, and he thought she wasn’t going to get anything from him. He chewed on his lip, waiting. He didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly she gasped and threw back her head. She opened her eyes; they were opaque, covered in swirls of white and silver.

Kalin, stunned, watched as she seemed frozen to the spot. He worried there was something wrong and wondered if he should get someone. He grasped her by the shoulders and shook her. “Regina!” he exclaimed. “Regina!”

She remained staring upwards, then her head suddenly slumped forward. She gasped loudly, as if she hadn’t been able to breathe.

Kalin let out a deep breath himself, relieved, his hands still on Regina’s shoulders. He sat back but still held on to her arm. “Are you alright?” he asked, concerned.

She looked at him, seeming in a daze, shook her head, then sighed deeply, tucking her hair behind her ears with shaking hands. “Kalin,” she said, her voice a whimper, “you have to be careful.”

He sat very still. “What did you see?” he asked, not really wanting to know.

She grasped his hand with both of hers and looked deeply into his eyes. “He’s looking for you.”

“What exactly did you see?” Theodore asked.

Regina sat on the beige settee in the main room, with Theodore by her side and the others standing in front of them. Kalin sat on a chair, fidgeting nervously.

“Myriad was sitting in a wide room, at a black table,” she said slowly. “He had his eyes shut and was concentrating on something. He was holding a small black crystal, mumbling something like, ‘My power to your power.’ He was looking for Kalin.”

Everyone went silent. Theodore put his head in his hands, sighing deeply.

Kalin felt like he was going to scream. “Can he replace me?” he asked.

Everyone looked at him.

“He’s doing what we wanted you to do,” Alfred said gravely. “We wanted you to track him. We thought we had the advantage of him not knowing you existed, but it looks like we were wrong. Yes, he can replace you. And he will.”

Kalin stared at him in bewilderment, then stood and began to pace. “What, so I just sit here?” he exclaimed. “I thought we had time to train…. I thought—I don’t know what I thought! But I trusted you!”

He stopped and scrunched his eyes shut, not wanting to yell but too upset not to. He felt someone touch his arm and opened his eyes to see Regina standing before him. She took his hand, smiling weakly, and Kalin tried to calm down. He took a deep breath, then went to the round table, pulled out a chair, slumped into it, and rested his head in his hands.

Kalin heard the others talking quietly, then heard them leave. He thought they’d left him alone, but when the chair beside him was moved, he lifted his head to see Regina sit next to him.

Resting his hands on the table, he didn’t know what to say. Regina was quiet for a moment, and then she reached out and put her hand on his. He looked at her, feeling a bit nervous that she was touching him, his heart starting to beat faster.

Regina smiled a little. “I still believe you’re supposed to defeat Myriad,” she said, squeezing his hand slightly. “Listen, this isn’t the end. I can’t have been seeing you—seeing you every night, for two weeks straight—if you were just going to die! That can’t be it, Kalin—I know it with every part of me. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you will win. I know it. Please believe me. Trust me. I’ve seen—” She stopped short, suddenly moving her hand away.

Kalin looked at her, wanting to know what she was going to say. “Seen what?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

He bit his lip, wondering what was going on inside her head. If she saw something about his future, something that showed he’ll be alright, he wanted to know about it. He reached out and touched her arm. “Seen what, Regina? I’d like to know.”

She squirmed in her seat, and he felt guilty, but if a madman was chasing him, he needed all the help he could get.

Did she see him winning? Did she see him in a battle? What? What is it?

Before he could ask her again, they heard the footsteps approaching. He sat back in his chair and waited to hear what everyone had to say.

Theodore stood before them, Alfred sat on the settee, and Mark and Sasha sat at the table. Theodore ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve had a discussion, and we’ve decided what we think’s best,” he said, and Kalin didn’t like his tone. Theodore looked over at Alfred, who nodded. He cleared his throat. “We want… we want… I’m so sorry, Kalin. But we want you to let Myriad replace you.”

Kalin sat there, stunned. He felt like he’d been stabbed in the back. Why were they doing this to him? “You want to let him hurt me?”

“No!” Theodore said. “No. We want him to replace you. There’s no point in hiding—it’s only a matter of time. But we won’t let him hurt you. We wanted you to track him, but I realize now that’s not how we’ll get to him. He’ll replace you. And we’ll be waiting. You’re still going to defeat him, Kalin. It’s just not going to happen how we expected.”

Kalin took a deep breath. “You can help me get ready?”

Theodore smiled. “We’ll all be ready. But first things first. I want you to spend more time with Regina. The more visions she can have about Myriad, the more prepared we’ll be. For some reason she can see him through you. That’s our first weapon.”

Kalin looked at her, and she blushed slightly. He felt a little excitement run through him. Well, at least something good was coming from this.