More Than a World Away

Witch or Wonder

Maura was strange. She looked like Nicholai and Helena mixed together. She said she was twenty four and Nicholai's sister. She had a talent that allowed her to sense other's talents, and in combat she could posess the opposite talent for a short time.

   "So, let's see what talents you two have." She put out her hands to Trey and Gabriella, "It's not necessary but this way the sense is more clear." Trey and Gabriella gave her their hands and she closed her eyes.

She opened them abruptly."Jacob will you stop that?"She glared at him. "You know what! Get out, your talents are clouding mine." Jacob grinned and left the room with Nicholai and Soro. Gabriella and Trey looked at each other confused but stayed silent.

   Maura took a deep breath and tightly grasped Trey and Gabriella's hands. A colorful light began to seep between their fingers and sparked as it collided with the air. Maura spoke to Trey in a voice that sounded like cicadas, "You are graced with a stealth talent, you're able to sneak away from your enemies and become invisible.  Use it well." The light seeping from Trey's hand became a deep royal blue and surounded him in a blue fog. "You're shrouded talent is awakened." The blue light dissipated and Trey slumped to the ground.

  Maura turned to Gabriella, her eyes still closed. It seemed like centuries before she spoke in her cicada voice.

"You are graced with a most dangerous talent. You can pull emotions, power, thoughts from whomever you wish. It is a power you can't hope to control when in anger or grief. It's possible for you to kill someone with this power, use it well." All the light seeped through their fingers in a rainbow that became an icy white light. She began to float two inches off the ground then the light dissipated and the world went dark.

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  Nicholai paced around the two benches Trey and Gabriella were laying on.

  "What do you mean you can't oppose her talent?" He asked with worry.

  "I mean she is by definition the opposite of all talent. The only way I could even hope to do that was when she possessed someone elses talent, but even then she could then take my  talent."
Nicholai looked at Gabriella, sleeping soundly.
"Well. Better get her trained up...to be on our side. It's not coincidence they arrived when we're on the edge of war. I don't know what it means, but it's not good."
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  Jacob shook his head. Ever since their talents had been awakened he'd had a headache trying to process emotions and energy presence of everyone his talent showed him. Everything seemed muddy and overwhelming, Gabriella's presence was extremely strong, she had so many different emotions he couldn't process them all.

   The two of them slept for the next day and a half and when they awoke they were energized and excited to start training with Jacob. He was worried that they might be too good for him but almost laughed at himself. They'd never faught before and couldn't even hold a sword, so he decided to build up their muscles with lifting and running and pushups. He seemed really strict and mean about it for the first couple weeks. It was really hard for him not to run them into the ground with his drills. Also he was distracted by Gabriella, she was so patient but also very hard on herself. She was one person he could never quite figure out.

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  After about two weeks of hard conditioning, Jacob decided to teach them about archery. Gabriella went up first, she lowered her shoulder and closed one eye. She took a deep breath and shot the arrow two inches off the edge of the target. She sighed, it was a lot harder than it looked.

  "Good try but see you were holding it..." He came and put his arms around her to guide them and set them straight. He drew her hand back to her mouth and pushed down her elbow. It was strange, having him so close to her. She could feel his body pressed against hers as she loosed the arrow. It stayed true and hit the bull's eye. Gabriella smiled and looked at Jacob, he was grinning along with her and she noticed how handsome he was. His chisled jaw and the way his bangs halfway fell in his face, and of course his beautiful eyes. Jacob raised an eyebrow playfully, as if he knew what she was thinking. But then Trey came and announced it was his turn to try, the grin on both of their faces vanished and Gabriella moved away from Jacob. Unlike what he'd done with Gabriella he just told Trey how to place his arms and feet so that the shot would stay true. His arrow took the liberty of splitting Gabriella's straight through the center. She had a feeling it meant something but her mind was too clouded with all the senses her talent allowed her to feel and she lost the thought.