Ravenswood Ch. 14

This chapter continues my story, although the book is nearly finished. It's the one that puts a different, more unique spin on the age-old vampire myth. But, because uploading chapters is faster than building them, it may take time before the start of the next book makes its way to your desktop, sorry for the delay, the reality of writing, I suppose.

I also want to add that this will be the last installment of this series.

As this is a science fiction tale there are aliens, good ones and bad ones, and yes, the good ones are here to stand against those who would subjugate the more physically fragile human race. They all face challenges.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter, please leave a comment once you've finished. Good feedback, positive or negative with specifics, is the lifeblood of any writer.

A big shout out goes to my favorite editor, Axelotto, without whom my work would be disastrous, as some of you have pointed out in the past when I've failed to use his services for one reason or another. -Dreamweaver594.

A Blessing, and a Curse

After leaving the tavern, Maura walked back to Vera's cottage. She remembered another day when she was feeling a bit playful. Having just discovered her ability to hear other's thoughts, she wanted to see how much she could embarrass Jason in front of Master Yaol. She began to test her mental skills, peering into his mind and reading his thoughts, leaving little tidbits like a naughty image as a calling card.

At first he was surprised, and a bit excited by her visits. Try as he might to keep a straight face while Master Yaol was talking to him, the images she left were compelling. Soon, he began to look forward to her pranks. Shortly after her first attempt, he realized what she was doing and decided to turn the tables on her. As she stood hearing instructions from Yaol, he placed a naughty image of what he'd like to do to her in her mind. This, of course, distracted her and caused her no end of embarrassment.

Finally, during a training session with Master Yaol the following week, Jason created an especially naughty thought and projected it to Maura, causing her to blush as Yaol continued to instruct her. This made Jason fold over laughing which created even more embarrassment for her. She rushed over and punched him in the arm, which sent him flying across the training yard and into some bushes. He emerged a bit dazed with grass, branches, and leaves sticking out of his hair and clothing. This was much to the mirth of both Yaol and Maura.

"Serves you right for doing that while Master Yaol was talking to me!" Maura barked, standing with her hands on her hips sporting a smirk that quickly became a laugh.

"Serves you right for listening!" Jason shouted back, laughing, as he picked twigs out of his hair. But I really meant everything the image conveys, he thought with a grin on his face. Maura's eyes flashed provocatively, but she kept her composure and Master Yaol finished his instructions.

Now she found that what were once silly pranks had turned into a cascade of uninvited voices invading her mind every minute, both day and night, whispering unspoken desires, and becoming an avalanche of uninvited yearnings. A simple stroll across the grounds had turned into a nightmare.

A half-hour later, as she emerged from the forest, Maura found Vera sitting outside of her cottage snapping beans and humming an old tune she'd never heard before. It took her a moment to realize that the tune she was hearing wasn't something coming to her out loud, but inside her head. "Am I in trouble, Vera? I only meant it as a prank."

Don't be alarmed my dear, it was only a matter of time before your gift fully manifested. What you see as a game with Jason will soon become torture for you if you don't learn to control it.

"I'm beginning to understand what you mean."

Hearing people's thoughts, Vera continued, without a filter will drive you insane because it never stops. Even in sleep the thoughts will come to you like a landslide. Your mind will never be at peace.

Maura slumped her shoulders as she nodded while standing by Vera's gate. Already the flood of voices entering her mind was concerning her. Even as she walked across the commons area from the Tavern, they came uninvited, growing stronger each day. What before was a simple walk was becoming uncomfortable. She projected her thought to Vera. Can you help me?

Baby steps, my dear, you're just learning to crawl. Soon you'll be running. Your gift is powerful, even more so than mine. And you'll learn, perhaps faster than anyone, I suspect.

Does Jason have this gift as well? Maura mentally spoke her thought to Vera.

He's sensitive to the gift but not as adept as you, that's what has helped him make the mind-play such a game. Jason's focus is on becoming a guardian like his father and grandfather. He'll be a truly great leader someday. That is, once he accepts his role in all of this. We have you to thank for that, daughter. You've transformed him. I see the joy in both of your eyes when you look at each other. I watch your auras blend together in radiant splendor when you train as partners. It's pure joy to watch.

"Kismet, I suppose." Maura muttered out loud.

Yes, kismet, thought Vera as she cleared a place on the bench for Maura to sit. Here, I'll help you with your first step: how to open and close the door. Grandmother placed a bowl of snap beans in Maura's lap as she sat on the bench. "Simple tasks help you focus better."

Maura smiled as Vera picked up a second bowl filled with beans. "At first the attraction to hearing the thoughts of other's will be intoxicating, but soon it will become a burden, then a nightmare."

"Very true," Maura murmured. "Even now, they've already have become a burden."

"You're a fast learner, as I said. I understand the prankish behavior of teasing Jason. And so, as you've said, the unbridled desires of others, hidden from view and never expressed, have begun to invade your consciousness. As a novice, you simply have no defense against them."

"What can I do?"

"Take it one simple step at a time."

Vera picked up a handful of beans and, after breaking off each of the ends, placed them into a separate bowl at her feet.

Maura joined her. She smiled subtly. She knew she enjoyed teasing Jason but now she desperately needed to find a way to control this. "What do I do to prevent it?"

"It's all a matter of focus, something that as a warrior, you should be very familiar with." Vera finished with the first handful and grabbed another. "First, you should find a place in your mind that is your 'private space'."

Maura turned to Vera, confused. "A private space?"

Vera nodded. "A place where all your thoughts are yours alone, your own, and no thoughts from others can enter unless you invite them in. That's the door I was talking about. It's more a metaphor than an actual thing, but useful in understanding it's purpose."

"Are you telling Jason the same thing?"

Vera smiled as she turned to Maura. "He already knows. Like I said, his gift isn't as powerful as yours, you're a true empath. He's only begun to experience this, mostly because of you."

Maura's face felt warm as she turned her attention back to her bowl of snap beans. "Sorry."

"Never be sorry for gifts, daughter, they are given to you for a reason, and someday you'll understand why. This might be the reason both of you train so diligently as a true team. It's as if you know what the other is planning before its express it in action." She dropped several more beans into the second bowl. "Yaol has sensed this already. He's impressed with your abilities to adapt and learn quickly. He's spoken proudly of your prowess with the sword. Yet he's unaware of your gift as an empath. But, he's fully aware of your warrior talent. You and Jason make a formidable team."

"So, for now," Vera continued, "find that private space I mentioned and decorate in whatever manner suits you. It's your space, where you will dwell privately. You can still hear the words of others, just as long as you stand outside of your private space or invite them in. Ultimately, you can decide to venture out and learn something from someone else, mentally, when you chose to. And, you will do so by your own decision."

Maura nodded to Vera and began to reflect her thoughts inward. As she wandered through the recesses of her mind, she found a space in a vast area filled with a brilliant white light. It didn't seem to have any boundaries. The first thing she selected for her 'private' space was a large round bed, like a great ottoman. The shape made it unique in her mind and that was important.

She covered the ottoman with several plush blankets like she'd seen on her home planet, when visiting wealthy families with her father. Then she covered the floor with soft oriental style carpets like she's seen in some of the picture books in the library. She nodded inwardly; the place was beginning to take on a comfortable appeal. She leapt mentally onto the ottoman and rolled across it, playfully, to settle into a pile of pillows. The freedom and silence that this world offered felt great; her mind was finally quiet, no more uninvited thoughts!

Next, she thought of establishing perimeter walls to define the space, so she would know, for herself, where her private space was and when she stepped out of it to discover something new.

She hung large blank canvases in the air, she didn't understand the mechanics of such a process, but shrugged and did it anyway. On one canvas, she willed a picture of the Ravenswood valley, like it first appeared to her while riding in Jason's magical car. It instantly appeared, and in motion too, as birds and butterflies flit across the scene. Next, she willed a picture of Vera's cottage and it popped into view, looking very much like the first time she saw it. Again, bugs and butterflies flit across the image as birds flew in pursuit. That was enough for now, she thought, perhaps later when new images come to mind, she could add then as well.

"Maura," Jason said, as he walked back from another visit to Master Brehan. He called from the lane that wandered along the front of his grandmother's cottage. Maura heard a faint but familiar whisper from outside of her private space yet she chose to ignore it. She continued to admire the pictures she recently added.

"Maura!" Jason shouted, cupping his hands together as he came closer to the fence, he was nearly at įhe gate and standing in front of Maura.

This time his voice was clearer, she stood and walked beyond the pictures. "Yes?"

"You seemed lost in thought," Jason said. He stepped through the gate to sit next to her and caress her cheek.

She smiled blissfully. "Just admiring the scenery and thinking what a wonderful place it is where we live."

"Yes, but with that raid on the store, it feels like trouble is brewing." He paused and gazed off in the same direction. "Well, no matter, let's see what Grandmother has fixed for lunch. Have you seen Lisa?"

"I left her with Fen at the Tavern a while a go, why?"

"No reason, I just wanted to see if she was joining us." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, stood, and ushered her towards Vera's front door. "Now, about that thought I had the other day," he whispered with a grin.

"Don't you dare say another word, Jason Bennett, that will only happen in the bedroom late at night when everyone else is asleep, and that's not a promise, just something for me to consider." She smirked, springing free of his grasp. She turned to blow him a kiss as she giggled and stepped up to Grandmother's door to knock before lifting the latch to open it. "Grandmother, I brought Jason, we're here to help with lunch."

After the meal, Maura and Jason helped Vera clean up. "Vera, what did you do before all of this?" She asked, waving her hands about the cottage.

"This?"

"You know, this," she said with a grin. "You're a member of the Council, a well respected healer and someone who seems to be very powerful in the community."

Vera paused for a moment to consider Maura's question. "Well, as for the cottage, my husband built it when he was a young man and we were just married. It wasn't as big as it looks now, times were tough then, and we were poor as 'church mice' I guess you could say. But we were in love and ultimately it didn't matter. We added on several rooms over the years. But the main room and the kitchen were as he built them."

"But, what did you do for a living?"

Vera smiled as she moved to the fireplace, set another log on the fire, and settled into her favorite rocker. "Oh, that's what you mean by 'this'. Well, times were different then, for women as well as men so, in addition to my chores around the house, I mostly volunteered with the wounded at the hospital. Men were returning from their patrols with all sorts of injuries. It was a bitter time for most of them. The weave had lots of bare spots and marauders from several worlds were coming through in droves." She sighed as she continued. "We all did what we could to keep them away from the humans but sometimes things just couldn't be helped. I suppose they became the stuff of legends in the human world." Jason nodded.

"Did you train as a healer or was it chosen for you?"

Lisa came through the front door, shaking rain off her umbrella.

"I trained, but it was mostly on-the-job learning. We didn't have a school set up yet, which came later. Lisa is a graduate of that program."

Maura nodded as Jason came out of their bedroom wearing a clean sweater.

"Grandmother was instrumental in setting up the curriculum for it," Lisa added stepping close to the fire to warm her hands. "Things have changed a lot over the years after we gained more knowledge of this world, but for the most part the core was set."

Vera shrugged. "I studied a lot in those days, ancient texts in the old language as well as stuff I borrowed from local libraries on herbs and such."

"Was that book you showed me the first day I came here one of those ancient texts?"

Vera nodded. "It was...my prized possession." Vera wrapped a shawl around her shoulders as she stepped over to the bookshelf. She picked up the book and held it lovingly, dusting off the cover. "It had been handed down from my great-great grandmother and I still treasured it, not that I could read most of the language at that time."

"What did you do?"

Vera returned the book to its place on the bookshelf and walked to her rocker. She sat and thought a moment, then chuckled. "There was this old man who lived near the edge of the village at the time, he must have been nearly 300. The poor man was pretty bent working all those years in a forge. He spent most of his life as the village blacksmith. Like today, there aren't many willing to do that sort of hard labor."

"Anyway, I heard from others that he spoke the ancient tongue, something passed down from his great grandfather before he was killed. I talked to him about it. He was an ornery old codger. Yaol reminded me of him when he first moved to the village years ago. Which is why I seem to get along with the old badger, 'birds-of-a-feather' you might say."

"I had to wear the old man down because he didn't much care for people back then, especially women," she chuckled as she remembered his stubbornness. "I was trying to get his opinion on a really obscure word and he stood glaring at me. I still remember his response when I told him that I was just as stubborn as he was," she laughed. "He sighed and sat in his favorite chair to consider the word. Then with a twinkle in his eye, he pulled out an ancient book; papers were falling loose, as its bindings had long since turned to dust. He thumbed through a dozen or more pages until he found the word."

"What did it mean?"

"And."

"That's it?"

"Yes," she chuckled. "Then, he handed the book to me and told me to stop bothering him so much. But I could tell, from the way he said it, he didn't mind my company from time to time."

"Was he still blacksmithing?"

"No. By then, he had apprenticed out Liam's grandfather. So he mostly kept to himself and tended to his goats."

Jason stood and walked to the window. "It looks like it's still raining buckets out there."

Vera smiled. "Wet wood is of little use in a fireplace."

Jason nodded with a grimace.

Vera turned back to Maura and smiled. "After that, I mostly kept things running smoothly in this cottage, raised several children, and continued to volunteer."

"Much more than that," Lisa chimed in, "Grandmother was instrumental in founding the "Healer's Society" and most of the recipes in the manual we still use come from her research."

Vera smiled softly and nodded. "I tried to do my part." She turned to her great niece. "Lisa, could you help Maura peel some vegetables for a stew I'm making? It's one I haven't made in a while."

"Sure thing, Grandmother." Lisa beamed a broad smile. "That's one thing I can do well in the kitchen," she laughed as she hooked her arm into Maura's as they walked into the kitchen. "Come on girl, I'll give you a hand."

The next morning, the crisp air set a covering of frost on the training ground. Maura stood near the side of the shrine and shivered. She often wondered what the shrine contained having never ventured to peek inside. Perhaps another day.

She and Jason were due to begin their training soon as he approached along the path that led from Vera's cottage. They stood by the shrine to affix some of their armor. It was a reinforced leather material that moved and flexed with the wearer, a technology that Maura brought from Terrus. She decided to add the armor as a precaution. Some of the strikes that Master Yaol and his teammate Master Roark made were getting faster and beginning to hurt. They were learning techniques as fast as their pupils and that meant that their learning was achieved the hard way, with blows to the body unchecked.

They overheard Yaol discussing something troublesome as they stood to prepare themselves for training. Master Yaol whispered, stridently. "Yes, she's a member of the Council too, and a Master Weaver."

Roark groaned. "Why would she do something like that? It's reckless. What, in the name of the Brethren, could she possibly expect to gain?"

"It's hard to say, but I have to stop her lessons with Maura and the rest of the apprentices. We can't risk the harm that might cause."

"I agree. By the way, I have a patrol to lead tomorrow, and I'll be gone for a week so I won't be able to help you with their training."

"It's just as well, Jason is getting lessons from Maura and she's fast becoming too much for me to handle. The other apprentices are learning fast too. I'll let them know today."

Jason glanced at Maura who nodded but it was obvious that her mind was elsewhere. Those feelings she had about Xylia weren't just intuition. She grimaced as she pulled the last of her armor around her waist.

A couple of hours later, leaving Jason to ask Master Roark about something unrelated to their training, Maura walked back to Vera's cottage lost in thought until she came around a shallow bend in the path. Ahead, Grace was sprawled on the ground as if she had just fallen from a tree. She started to run to her, but then she stopped, seeing that around her, carefully hidden by leaves and branches, was a large rope net. She smiled to herself and stepped out of her 'private space'.

Maura shook her head; the pranks this girl were pulling lately were getting tiresome. She listened to Grace's mind as she gazed off into the forest, looking as if she was occupied by something else.