The Sadian Chronicles: Book 2: From Mercury To Venus

Chapter Nineteen: Ordinary Day: Part 1

Most of the post from here on will center around Vanessa.

One week earlier back in Pierre...

It had been several months since Dusk left on some secret mission that he couldn't tell Vanessa about. All she knew was that he was with Marianna, the woman she had barely knew but somehow she trusted her. Vanessa could always detect good spirits, but she also suspected that the mysterious woman had many secrets. Those secrets contained dark memories, but Vanessa was not one to pry. If she did pick up something about a particular person she kept it to herself most of the time, except when it came to her children.

She was a teacher at the Pierre elementary School. The last week had been trying for her when she learned one of her students was being abused by their step-father. This was not an ordinary child, but someone special. She had heard the word Sadian spoken before. The children had even made up a morbid little song about them.

Some referred to them much like they would the monster under the bed scenario, but Vanessa knew better. Sadians existed, but they weren't the same frightful monsters that came out at night. They were just ordinary everyday people with a secret they dared not share with the world.

She had a secret too, because she herself was a Sadian. Her gifts were passive but no less powerful than someone with an active gift. John "Dusk" Mason was one of those. When she learned of his heightened senses it intrigued her, but when she first saw him transform into his hawk form she was more than astounded. Marianna Faigon had an active power as well, but wasn't sure what it was. She could only sense the true nature of a person, in living things, not just people but animals and plant life as well.

When she learned of the true nature of her gifts, she researched as much as possible to find out more about them. What she learned was astonishing. Almost half if the world population were actives Sadians, and as time went on the percentage would rise.

As she sat in her classroom, she pondered over the book that Marianna had forgotten when she left. The book was written by Martin Drell, a professor of Psychology. It didn't seem like the type of book that any typical young woman of Marianna's age would read until Vanessa learned what it contained.

Both she and Dusk were both active Sadians and so the possibility of their child being one was most certain. She patted her growing belly as she felt her unborn child kick again. She was a little over six months into her pregnancy. Dusk had not known about it. She planned to tell him when he returned, but she had not known that he would be gone this long.

She already suspected the child to be a girl and wondered who she would look like. She was half Native American and half Irish, but she didn't know of Dusk's true heritage. She believed it was important that a child know where they came from and be proud of that fact. That was the one promise she made to her unborn child. She would always know who she was.

It was the end of the school day, and she was preparing to leave for home when she heard a knock on her classroom door. She looked up to see that it was her friend and fellow teacher Elizabeth Bowman.

"Hey, Van," she said as she walked in. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm just fine, Lizzie," Vanessa said as she lifted herself out of her chair. "The baby is just kicking more than usual."

"Well, after your false labor scare I've been worried about you," Elizabeth said as she approached her friend. "Maybe I should give you a ride home."

"It's not necessary," Vanessa gave her a smile. She had always been an independent woman, and being pregnant wasn't going to change that. "Just because I'm having a baby doesn't mean that I can't drive."