Emille

Chapter 17

The robin hopped a few steps closer to Arthur, cocking its head curiously. Arthur sank his fingers deeper into the dirt, allowing its energy to seep into his skin. As he slowly exhaled, he felt all of the human anxiety and tension slip out of his body. His head emptied, cleared.

The robin's eyes glinted, but it seemed to accept that Arthur was no more of a threat than a grazing deer. It flew over to Arthur's shoulder in a flurry of dark and rust colored feathers. Its richly colored chest indicated to Arthur that the robin was a male. It was likely scouting for suitable nesting spots for the fast approaching spring months. It pecked at Arthur's ear lobe, testing out the strange and soft structure upon which it had landed. Arthur allowed the shock of the peck to register in his mind, then release it into the wind. The robin settled on his shoulder and began preening himself.

"I wish I could paint this moment," Lillabet sighed. "You look like a garden fairy."

Arthur decided to take the comparison as a compliment. "Now you try," he instructed. "Just like we discussed. Focus on the earth's energy."

"Okay," Lillabet said. She closed her eyes and rested her palms on the ground. Minutes ticked by, with little movement from the robin. Arthur glanced over at him, and found him snoozing contentedly on Arthur's shoulder.

"I don't think this is working," Lillabet admitted.

"Maybe his mate will be drawn to you," Arthur said, keeping his tone encouraging. "She's likely nearby." This was the seventh test of earthly connection that Lillabet had failed. It was becoming clear that living tethers could not harness energy from the earth directly because the connection simply was not there. This didn't mean Lillabet was weak, though.

As if to prove Arthur's thoughts true, a butterfly floated gently onto Lillabet's knee. Its wings were magnificent, a beautiful blend of deep purples and greens, with splashes of creamy whites and yellows and streaks of black. The air shimmered around it, as if its wings were hot enough to produce a desert heat.

"Another Evening Swift," Lillabet said, and held out a hand for the creature to climb onto. Its antennae touched her fingers gently, a greeting between old friends. It clearly recognized something familiar in Lillabet. Because she, like the butterfly, was not of this world.

"Do you want to collect some of its wing dust?" Lillabet asked, raising her pointer finger with the Evening Swift on it to her face to get a better look.

"No," Arthur replied. "No need to bother it." He couldn't help but notice how much like Lillabet the Evening Swift was. Not in looks, but in energy. There was something slippery and hazy in their energies, as if one strong gust of wind could blow them right out of this realm and into the next. Arthur had always chalked this up to her free spirit. Now he knew better.

He'd been working with Lillabet for the past two weeks, studying her abilities. She'd made progress, but never in ways that Arthur expected. Lillabet's strengths were simply different from that of a practitioner. As a tether, she belonged to none of the realms and to all of the realms. The malleability of her existence meant that she could never fit comfortably into one place; every place that she entered registered her as something familiar but not entirely correct.

On some days, this saddened her. On others, she lavished in it. She could not sense life as Arthur could, but she could walk comfortably amongst even the most dangerous Veiled World creatures. She was unable to mimic Arthur's rituals if she followed them exactly, but the alterations she made to his rituals produced spectacular results. She didn't harness the earth's energy, she harnessed all energy. She harnessed the energy that belonged to no single realm. This energy was new to Arthur, frightening at times. But also incredibly exciting.