'WHEN YOU FOUR arrived in our world,' Elena arched an eyebrow at us. 'You each threw off a massive power surge. Something I haven't seen in quite a while. As you might have noticed, there are people in this world who are gifted. They have special abilities and anyone with these abilities will have sensed your arrival too. Even more so after the incident on the griffons.'
Abilities? And what did she mean by power surge? All we'd done was freak out when we thought Sian was in serious danger. I interrupted her. 'Elena, I'm sorry, but I don't think we understand what you're talking about.'
The Sorceress looked surprised.
'Are you saying we have abilities?'
'Yes. You must have. To have given off such an energy wave is absolute proof.'
'But we didn't do anything,' Sian said, looking like the rest of us, very confused.
'Yeah, all we did was pass out,' Kassie said. 'That doesn't sound like an impressive gift to me. Passing out when something scary happens.'
I agreed, 'Totally useless.'
Elena shook her head. 'No. What I'm trying to say is I believe you girls are gifted, of the elements.'
Nope. Still no clue what she's babbling about, I thought, then remembered something. 'Sian, our weapons we found when we arrived, they're all engraved right? With designs that could represent the elements.'
Sian stared at me while she thought about it. 'Actually yes, I think they are.'
'Well there you go then,' Loi said to Elena. 'We have been gifted but in a more literal sense.'
There was silence as we waited for her response. She'd shut her eyes and had a hand to her head. We glanced at each other and Loi shrugged, settling back in her seat.
Elena let out a sigh. 'Let me start again. In Gar'nyse—the world you're now on, beings can be born with special abilities. These are known as gifts. For example, some are born with the gift to foresee events. Others can change form and some can create illusions. Every time a gifted being uses their gift, consciously or not, it throws off an energy wave. When you four arrived you threw off a very remarkable wave.' She paused, allowing us to digest this. Before we could ask questions she continued, 'What you will not know, is that a person's abilities can be drawn from them and absorbed by creatures whose abilities are very strong. This process kills you. Hence the need to get you under our protection quickly.'
We all sat up a little straighter at that.
Loi, a frown on her face, questioned Elena. 'Why do you think we'd be of interest to such a person?'
'And how do we know you aren't such a person?' Kassie demanded. We looked at her in surprise then back at Elena.
'Yes,' Sian gave Elena a straight forward look. 'We've been informed that you have abilities and you do carry the title of Sorceress.'
Elena looked surprised. 'Oh. Well, I guess you wouldn't know. Yes, I do have abilities. They are hereditary in my family and no, I have no desire to rob you of yours. I have all the powers I need.' She gave a light laugh. 'And I have no desire for world domination.'
World domination.
My brain froze at that. What did that mean? We had powers strong enough to do such a thing? Surely not.
'Elena, we thought a love spell we cast brought us here,' Sian confessed blushing. 'Was it you who brought us?'
Elena's full lips twitched and the hint of a dimple appeared in a cheek, making her seem much younger. 'No, I didn't bring you here. You simply appeared. What was the spell you cast?'
