Talentless

Nightfall

          I did not know how long it had been. I couldn't feel anything. No muscle. No bone. Cancelled. The word rang in my head. Canceled. Canceled. A shiver ran through me, but it took much longer to find out why. Glauce had no use for me other than a spot in nobility. Jacen was out of the picture. I was erased from the Lost Cities now. I was nothing.

          I did the only thing I could think of: I ran. 

          I knew I could not go past the force field. The dangerous waters Glauce once spoke of were terrifying. This island, this false paradise if you will, was supposed to be the loneliest place on Earth, thousands of miles away from land, the closest intelligent species were humans circling low orbit in their space crafts. 

          There is one last place on this island, one I haven't told anyone about. Not even Semele, though she probably knew where to find it. A little clearing in the woods, far from anywhere, really. I liked to got here at sunset and sunrise, where the sky was the perfect shade of orange and pink. When you could see bits of the stars peaking from the treetops. Twelve boulders, each carved out of solid limestone, sat around the edges of the clearing, along with a row of pebbles that led to the center.

          Where I trained.

          The moment I set foot on my first pebble, the earth rumbled behind me. A nine foot tall giant made of hard earth, programmed to attack. I came ready.

          Telekinesis is about pulling energy from your core. Letting it go through you and thrusting it out. If you do it right, you can hear a slight hum inside, and, when you release the energy you boiled up, it feels like shooting invisible lightning. Pure energy, and you can shape it however you want. Pull things together. Break them apart. It cuts through wood, metal, stone. Even flesh and bone. They all fall like blood from the tip of a spear. Cold, hard wind slashed through the giant's torso, cutting him clean in half. The rest crumbled easily. 

          I stood, catching my breath before nearly getting knocked off my feet again. I whipped around to see three new giants, freshly spawned and ready to totally murder me.

          And I smirked.

          I shot two bolts of lightning like twin spears, slicing down to the core of the two giants on the sides. The third kept advancing, though I could summon another bolt, but that would be too easy. I looked to my sides, gathering everything I could and lifting the biggest chunk of the fallen giant behind me. I hurled it at the third, digging deep into its chest. I nearly fell from the impact, but the giant straight up imploded into thousands of jagged rock. It triggered two more giants behind me, which I fought until night fell again.

          Jacen Vacker watched the sun dip below the mountains, night falling over the island for the second time in hundreds of years. Ever since Atlantis, there was a constant buzzing at the back of his head. He never left his bedroom after that, and every day he'd wake up forgetting what happened in the preivious. Every night a lady would visit him. The lady was Glauce, of course, but it seemed like he hadn't seen her for a long time. They'd be in the same lake, endless shores guarded by mountains. There were black swans in the lake, too. Sometimes, a blonde girl would be there. He forgot her name, but she'd point to one of the swans flying away and tell him to follow it across the sky. Every dream ended with Glauce's teal eyes, with her whispering that she wanted him to follow her.

         I went back to the cave with the waterfall to watch the stars. Pressing a hidden panel on the wall of the cave revealed some blankets and pillows. No one knew this spot but the gnomes. Especially Semele, who appeared in the night to check on me. She knew I'd be here. She knew me best, amongst all the gnomes, Jacen and Glauce. She knew the lotus flowers had healing properties. When I slept here, there were no nightmares. Nothing to be afraid. As long as she breathed, I'd be okay.