The Missing Prophecy (pjo/kotlc) book 3

Chapter Six

Jolie put her arm around Ana's shoulders. "I don't expect you to share anything with me. I just know how it feels to be alone."

"Do you really, though?" Ana asked, her temper spiking. "I don't even know why I'm here!" she screamed.

"Let it all out," Jolie encouraged.

Ana screamed. Her voice was raw when she said, "I don't belong in this world any more than you perfect people belong in mine. My parents are gone. I...it's my job to save them, and here I am, wasting time! What was I thinking..." She ran her fingers through her messy hair, tugging on the ends, playing with them, whatever it took to not think about... about this.

"My love joined this group. He told me I had too, or we couldn't be together. He said it was rebelling against the match." Jolie looked at Ana with sad eyes. "The matchmaking system is an Elvin thing. Elves with special training give you lists of people you should marry, and if you marry, or date, someone not on your list, it's considered a bad match, and you're, well, shunned, made fun of, called names, by society." She explained.

"My love was a pyrokinetic, an elf with the ability to summon fire..." Jolie trailed off, lost in thought.

"Was?" Ana asked.

"I no longer love him, and he has passed away from his own foolishness." Jolie said. "Brant tried to force me to join the Neverseen. When I refused, as I was part of another organization at the time, he burned down his house, killing me, or so I made everyone think. I escaped, barely alive. But, I recovered, and have been poisoning his organization from the inside out. I don't know why I'm telling you this, but you seem like you need to hear it. How old are you, Algoritm?" Jolie asked kindly.

"Nine." It was barely a whisper.

"Nine?! That's way to young for this! You're just a kid! What was Gisela thinking?! I can't do this to a kid!" Jolie fretted, jumping off the bed and pacing in the small area around the bed. She flipped her hood back up again.

"You can and you will!" Ana said, the fire in her voice evident.

If I'm going to do this, it better be worth it.

"Ugh. Okay, I'll explain, and maybe you'll change your mind. What I'm going to do is have you drink an elixir that has Elvin genetics inside. It will give you access to all of our skills, like levitating, telekinesis, blinking in and out of sight, body temperature regulation, darkness vision, breath control, appetite suppression, and channeling. It may also give you an ability, for which you could be a beguiler, charger, conjurer, descrier, empath, enhancer, flasher, froster, guster, hydrokinetic, inflictor, mesmer, phaser, polyglot, psionipath, pyrokinetic, shade, technopath, telepath, vanisher, vociferator, and only Sophie Foster has this ability, but it is possible you could be a teleporter." Jolie frowned, scanning her vials along the walls.

"Wow. You remember all that?! That's amazing! I want to be a charger!" Ana said enthusiastically.

"Why?" Jolie asked, opening a cupboard, and selecting a vial.

"Because it sounds the coolest, duh!" Ana grinned as Jolie laughed.

"It does, doesn't it? Okay, if you really want to do this, lay down and drink this. After you drink it, you're going to be in a lot of pain, but I want you to drink this one, too." Jolie snapped her fingers, and a purple vial appeared in her hands. "Are you ready? You can still back out."

Ana shook her head. "I'm ready." She took the yellow vial from Jolie, only slightly freaked out that Jolie had just made the purple vial appear out of nowhere. She gulped it down before she could chicken out.

Then came pain. Pure, raw, pain. It was all Ana could think, see, feel. Through the haze, she tasted something sweet, and her body shut down.

"I love you, Mom." She managed to whisper.