Echoes of the Past

Chapter Seventeen - Part Two

Chapter Seventeen: Goodbye to New And Old Friends - Part Two 

"Hello," she said as he came to a stop a few steps above her. "I was hoping to see you before you left, Evan."

He eyed her wearily. Remaining silent, he decided to let her speak first.

Tabetha smiled at his silence, curling a stray hair over her ear. Her features hardened when she spoke. "I wanted to say that... that I know about your... your ability."

He kept his expression neutral, though his heart began to race.

"I know it's not an easy thing to talk about. And it's not easy to explain how I know, but..." She swallowed, looking away and taking some time to collect her words. "When my mother was sick, she said she could see things. We did not make sense of it at first, and we think it part of her illness. But we later saw that my mother was speaking of things that had not yet happened. Or were happening far away. Like... the things you see. Yes?"

Evan's stomach tightened. He tried to gage how much she knew and how much she suspected. "I am sorry to hear of your mother's pain. I am afraid, however, that I do not understand what you mean."

Tabetha's mouth thinned. "Seeing the future is a rare gift that passed down my mother's family line. It is a gift that the Red Monks of old were thought to have. When I was younger, I would put on robes and pretend I was a Monk. The women in my family do not do well in old age. Like my meia suffers now. I have seen enough of this gift, or curse, and have felt it enough to know what it is like in another."

Evan idly focussed on the sceptre on his belt. He could no longer look at the eyes that reminded him so much of Reisa. He doubted he could lie to her if he spoke, and so he remained silent.

"Now, I don't think I have an ability like my mother," Tabetha went on. "But, I have these feelings, sometimes, that come to me. I deny it for so long now." Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. "But I have realised–recently, in fact–that it is not something I should be ashamed of. I think... I think that if I embrace it, I will be stronger for it. And I have a feeling that you will be the same too."

She held her gaze on him. Evan knew she would remain silent this time.

He shook his head, finding it hard to speak. "It is called the Glow." He paused. He had never spoken that word out loud before. "That is the name I was told it had. It is also known as the Way of the Sight. I can see... a... light around people. It shows me what they are truly feeling. Sometimes, I can hear their thoughts. Or get an idea, a feeling, of their true words and thoughts. I have never considered it a gift. It is something I have had for a long time. Something I have also denied, for too long."

Tabetha moved onto the first step, inching closer to him. The action startled Evan, but her slow and controlled movements told him she meant no ill will.

"You cannot live a lie for too long, Evan," she said softly. "It will eat at you. Destroy you. Until nothing of you remains. I've finally accepted it. Can you?"

Evan fell into thought, becoming lost a moment. She made it sound so easy. He was trembling when he finally shook his head, not knowing what to tell her. His heart sank when he looked into her eyes. "Reisa..." the name left him in a whimper. He hardly realised he had said it.

To his surprise, Tabetha nodded, as if understanding. Understanding something that he could not even comprehend. She wrapped her arms around him.

The embrace brought tears to Evan. In his mind he was hugging Reisa once again. He held her tighter. After all these years, he could finally hold her again. His aches and tension left him as the warm, soothing power of her embrace flowed through him.