Path Of The Broken

6. Ilarith-3

Jess turned away from the windows and walked through the tower complex towards Damien’s sitting area. The walls threw off a blue glow as she approached, lighting up the corridor, fading as she walked past. The light caused the silver threaded through the fine silks of her gown to gleam. The fabric of her dress whispered as the cloth rubbed together with each step, her long blond hair held back with some ornately carved combs. This had been her home for months now and she had attracted her own servant, Clara from the village, within days of her getting here. Jess still wasn’t sure how the system worked, except that Clara appeared and tended to her needs, even living here in the estate rather than the village.

Jess passed her days with some instruction from Damien on the veil and its uses. He’d taught her techniques on calming her mind. He’d explained that with her transition, she was one of the lucky ones. Still, she knew he considered her under his protection and for all intents and purposes restricted to the estate, at least until he gained confidence in her ability to protect herself. There was a way through the protective barriers of Ilarith, that much was clear. She didn’t know what the key was to unlocking them, though. Damien had smiled at her when she’d asked about it, and advised her that when she was ready, she would possess the ability to come and go as she pleased.

Her reaction had been one out of character with how she would have reacted even a few short months ago: she’d made a conscious effort to batten down her emotions after her first day here. It seemed to work, since she’d accepted the restriction with an atypical calmness, without the anger she would have reacted with in the past. Now barely anything seemed to upset her at all. Of course there were explosions on occasion in training caused by frustration. It concerned her, abstractedly, that she was turning cold and remote, shutting herself off from what it was to be human.

Damien had explained to her she wasn’t human as she knew it anymore. She would live far longer than any regular human would, and that required adjustments. Thinking through it, she realised that if the Elder raged and engaged in temper tantrums it would be disastrous. Kings could wreak havoc onto a kingdom or neighbouring territory. The Elder possessed the power to destroy the world.

Yet from what she saw they were remote, removed from the concerns of the world, even from the fate of their own kind. When she thought about it, she realised that her uncle exhibited similar traits.

She also found it easier to wield the veil when she wasn’t tripping over her emotions. How she’d managed in the past, bumbling through, reacting on instinct, was anyone's guess. Unfortunately Damien insisted she learn control, learn to consciously do what she wished with the veil. That was a sticking point that required concentration and practice. He’d pointed out to her that the Elder themselves built their own estates and towers. Utilising nothing but the power of the veil, they built their estates and access roads to assist humans to settle nearby.

Clara advised her that a new Kin took a group willing to settle in a new place with them when they resettled. The humans and Elder of Ilarith seemed to have a symbiotic relationship. At first the idea horrified Jess, suggesting that slavery was the way of life in Ilarith, yet Clara had disabused her of that notion.

The humans had their own guilds, interests and lives. The Elder, from Clara's point of view, were their rulers and protectors, unlike in Vallantia, where those with the power to become Kin were treated with fear and distrust. Her self-appointed servant told Jess that the Elder left them alone to run their own affairs, only distantly aware or interested in them. The humans paid tribute to their Elder. They provided produce and labour, yet it was up to them what and how much. Clara informed her bluntly that it was no different to the ruling family and class in Vallantia. She felt their system was easier since if a village had bad crops and couldn’t spare the food, they would find that provender appeared by the grace of the Elder. Where the Elder procured the windfall from Clara didn’t know. Jess suspected on those occasions that some merchant in another town or another kingdom would wake to find their supplies missing when they checked. Or perhaps they just willed it into existence from the veil. The thought amused her and Jess made note to ask Damien about the magically appearing food stocks.

The concept that she had the ability to construct an entire dwelling utilising the veil astounded her no end, so she practiced at wielding the veil every day. Practiced trying to form common things around her, everything from knives to the vase on her dresser. While Jess found spinning what she wanted out of the veil easy, unlike with Damien's ability, hers had no permanence. She observed Damien as he wielded the power and concluded that there were levels to the veil she couldn’t perceive. Just as in the past, the veil appeared as grey wisps to her. After she’d pushed herself too far defending against an attack by the Sundered, burning the channels of her mind further open, she had discovered she perceived the veil differently. They were different colours and intensity, which she believed denoted different strengths. She’d also decided that whatever power he was accessing, it was what he used to trigger the barrier in the veil. He was using an aspect of the power that she couldn’t perceive yet. It made her wonder how long this transition period was meant to last.